The human race ,,,,,,,,,, I mean what is with people?
Joel
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Posted on Fri, Oct. 03, 2003
Why a local hospital gave in to a racist demand
Supervisors said they sought only to avoid a confrontation.
By Oliver Prichard
Inquirer Staff Writer
For several days in early September, supervisors at Abington Memorial
Hospital told African American employees to stay out of a patient's
room after a man ordered that no blacks assist in the delivery of his
child.
Despite a hospital policy stating that "care will be provided on a
nondiscriminatory basis," maternity ward staffers accommodated the
man's wishes.
The decision offended many employees and prompted hospital president
Richard L. Jones Jr. to issue a statement calling the situation
"morally reprehensible."
Hospital vice president Meg McGoldrick said the problems began when a
pregnant woman's husband insisted that only white employees could
enter his wife's room.
"The staff informed our African American employees that there was a
volatile situation, and they suggested that they not interact with the
family," she said. "In some cases, they actually told employees that
they probably ought not to go into the room."
The supervisors had good intentions and sought only to avoid a
confrontation between the man, who was white, and hospital staff,
McGoldrick said. Doctors, nurses and service employees were among
those affected by the decision.
"The whole incident has greatly upset many of our employees who...
perceived that we were acquiescing to the family's wishes," McGoldrick
said in an interview. "We were wrong. We should have followed our
policy."
Citing patient privacy law, hospital officials said they could not
release information about the man or his wife, or details of her
medical treatment.
She was admitted the week of Sept. 7. McGoldrick would say only that
the couple, accompanied by their young child, were at the hospital
"several days."
The man did not threaten violence and police were not called, although
hospital security monitored the situation closely, McGoldrick said.
NAACP is notified
The Philadelphia office of the NAACP received calls about the
incident, but no one filed a formal complaint. J. Whyatt Mondesire,
president of the Philadelphia NAACP, was not available for comment.
Efforts to reach staffers from the hospital's maternity section were
unsuccessful.
Abington is a 508-bed hospital that serves patients from Montgomery
and Bucks Counties and Philadelphia. Following the breach of policy,
hospital administrators have taken several steps, including:
Personally apologizing to staffers who were told not to enter the
patient's room.
Sending a letter on Sept. 16 to all employees and volunteers, in which
Jones promised to "better address unconscionable circumstances like
this."
Holding staff meetings and forming a "diversity task force" of
hospital employees to develop a plan for similar problems in the
future.
Hiring consultants to help managers handle sensitive cultural issues.
Revising the hospital's antidiscrimination policy to immediately
notify high-level administrators when such problems occur.
'Inexcusable' decision
Despite those efforts, the decision to restrict black employees from
fully performing their work for several days was "inexcusable," said
Barry Morrison, director of the Anti-Defamation League's regional
office in Philadelphia.
"I don't see why and how a hospital could justify accommodating a
request that the professionals attending to a patient be of a
particular background," Morrison said. "Certainly, it's demoralizing
for the people who work there."
Carol Bayley, a medical ethicist for Catholic Health Care West, a San
Francisco-based network of 41 hospitals, said Abington Hospital had
failed its responsibilities to employees and the community while
accommodating someone's racial preference.
"This was a fundamental disrespect of these professionals' skills and
their fundamental dignities," Bayley said. "Hospitals are public
citizens, and like any other big institution, they have to stand for
integrity. A hospital needs to stand against this undercurrent of
racism in our society."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer Oliver Prichard at 610-313-8219 or
[email hidden]. Staff writer Jeff Shields contributed to
this article.
--
Joel M. Eichen, .
Philadelphia PA
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