Do you think physicians are a major contributor to health disparities? What do you think is the most important thing administrators can do to help address the problem?

ANSWER THE ABOVE DISCUSSION AND THEN REPLY TO MY CLASSMATE’S RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE QUESTION AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU AGREE? (A MINIMUM OF 200 WORDS EACH)

                                                              CLASSMATE’S POST

Yes, I do feel that physicians are a major contributor to health disparities. Physicians are just as guilty of bias as the normal population. They are known to treat patients according to their socioeconomic status. What that means is, they will give better care to the ones who they know can afford it and can afford to follow what they prescribe for them. Also, it means if they feel that the patients will not follow their regimen then they will not give them their full attention and just streamline treat them. “For example, in a study conducted by Arpey et al. (For example, if a doctor does not feel a patient is going to follow through with necessary treatments and follow-up care, they may not make the effort to recommend it. Research indicates clinicians may also postpone medically necessary diagnostic testing (Arpey et al., 2017). This could also be related to the cost of the diagnostic testing coupled with the patient’s medical insurance”(Arpey et al., 2017).

   Administrators need to make sur that physicians are offering the best care possible to their patients no matter what the SES is. If administrators notice or detect that physicians are being bias towards their patients, then they need to report them to the board of medicine.

                                                        Reference

Arpey, N. C., Gaglioti, A. H., & Rosenbaum, M. E. (2017). How socioeconomic status affects patient perceptions of health care: A qualitative study. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 169– 175.

https://doi.org/10.1177/2150131917697439