Racial bias among EMS providers, even unconscious bias, has a significant impact on patient care.
In this episode of the Code 3 podcast, Scott Orr speaks with Jamie Kennel, the director of the Paramedic Program, a joint program between Oregon Health and Science University and the Oregon Institute of Technology, where he’s an associate professor. He’s also a cofounder of Healthcare Equity Group, which helps EMS organizations improve the equity of their care.
Kennel led a comprehensive study he led of nearly 26,000 EMS encounters in Oregon over two years. The results are disturbing. The data showed that medics were less likely to do a pain assessment on Hispanic and Asian patients than whites. It also found that black patients were 40% less likely to be given pain medication.
What’s going on here? Certainly, no medic goes on a run thinking that a minority patient’s going to get different treatment. Orr and Kennel discuss the problem of unconscious bias in EMS.
[Also read: Racial disparities in EMS]