Story at a glance
A new survey from The Commonwealth Fund found 47 percent of healthcare workers have observed discrimination or racism directed toward a patient.
The survey also found that 44 percent of healthcare workers have witnessed a colleague suffer discrimination based on race or ethnicity.
The rate at which healthcare workers witness racism and discrimination at work is most likely underrepresented in the survey.
Nearly half of healthcare workers in the United States have seen a patient experience discrimination based on their race or ethnicity, according to a new survey from The Commonwealth Fund.
The 3,000-person survey found that 47 percent of doctors, nurses, dentists, physician assistants and other health workers witnessed a racist incident toward a patient last year.
Data show that both intrapersonal and structural racism negatively impact the mental and physical health of millions of people in the United States.
Healthcare workers said Black patients were the most likely to be discriminated against because of their race when seeking or receiving care.
According to the survey, 55 percent of healthcare workers said Black patients are very or somewhat discriminated against in the healthcare system.
Fifty percent of healthcare workers said the same for Hispanic patients and 41 percent did so for Asian patients.
Meanwhile, just 19 percent of workers said white patients are very and or somewhat discriminated against in healthcare.
The survey also found that 44 percent of healthcare workers have witnessed discrimination or racism against a colleague.
But the number of healthcare workers who witness discrimination against patients or colleagues based on their race or ethnicity is most likely higher than is reflected in the survey.
This is because some healthcare workers might struggle to identify subtle expressions of racism or discrimination, according to Senior Vice President of Advancing Health Equity at The Commonwealth Fund Laurie Zephyrin.
“Sometimes people may not have the language of seeing discrimination or racism play out and really know what to say it is,” she said.
This happened at least once when The Commonwealth Fund conducted the survey, she noted. As part of the survey, the foundation held six focus group interviews with healthcare workers in 2022.
When some focus group members said they had not witnessed any discrimination against a patient or a colleague, focus group leaders gave members a series of examples of racism or discriminatory practices.
Some of those examples included hearing a patient speak negatively about a provider because of their race or ethnicity or witnessing a patient request a new provider based on their race, Zephyrin said.
“When given those examples some of them said ‘oh yeah, I have observed negative comments or abusive behavior,’” she said.
