News: Report shows 56% of racist behavior at healthcare organizations comes from patients

In a new report published by ECRI, data collected from health systems and hospitals shows the current trends of racist behavior in the workplace. Analyzing patient safety incident reports involving race or ethnicity, the study found that 56% of cases involved patients or family members making inappropriate comments. Staff members making inappropriate comments about race or ethnicity accounted for 7% of the incident reports, HealthLeaders reported.

The report comes from more than 500 patient safety incident reports collected from health systems and hospitals across the nation between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020. Patients who said that others are racist or engaged in racist behavior made up 22% of the reports, while 4% were made by staff members who said management or a supervisor discriminated against them.

“These incidents have negative consequences for patient safety directly and indirectly. If a staff member is exposed to racist comments, then they are going to be impacted in their emotional well-being. If they are not emotionally well—if they are frustrated or angry—they may not be able to provide the best care and they might not be as attentive to potential health issues of the patient as they could be,” Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, president and CEO of ECRI, told HealthLeaders. “That is a direct impact on patient safety. If a staff member has racially motivated issues, they might not provide appropriate care to a patient.”

Schabacker recommended two primary ways that healthcare organizations can detect racist incidents in the workplace. The first is for the organization’s leadership to create an environment where employees and patients feel comfortable reporting such issues. Secondly, have a member of the senior management team trained and dedicated as the advocate for reporting. He also suggested organizations have a clear culture and rules for what behavior is acceptable and what is not.

“There should be a clear code of conduct and a rulebook that says if there is racist behavior, here is what this organization is going to do,” Schabacker said. “If something happens, there is a warning, there is training, then if something happens again, there is an escalation and there are disciplinary consequences.”

Editor’s note: To read HealthLeaders’ coverage of this story, click here. To read the ECRI report, click here.