Minority physicians struggle to get care for their patients

Clout, proximity, discrimination are cited as some of the factors.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Sept. 3, 2001.

About one in three African-American and Hispanic physicians report difficulties getting hospital admissions for patients. Only one in four white doctors have this problem.

And when it comes to getting patients referred to specialists, African-American and Hispanic doctors also have more trouble than whites, according to a new study.

Rodney G. Hood, MD, an African-American internist at a group practice in San Diego, experiences these disparities. And he doesn't expect to see it change anytime soon.

"For decades, many of our physicians have been complaining about that issue. I refer to it as a form of institutionalized racism," he said.

The new study by the Center for Studying Health System Change confirmed what Dr. Hood and many other minority doctors have long believed: African-American and Hispanic physicians are more likely than white physicians to have trouble getting patients admitted to hospitals and referred to specialists.

The report is based on a 1998-99 nationwide telephone survey of more than 12,000 office- and hospital-based physicians. It focused on African-American and Hispanic doctors but not other minority physicians. Findings were published last month in Medscape General Medicine, a peer-reviewed online medical journal.

Nearly 15% of Hispanic and 12% of African-American doctors had trouble obtaining specialty referrals for patients while 7.5% of white doctors reported difficulties.

The differences between minority and white doctors remained even after researchers factored in physician experience, training, practice size and participation in managed care. [...]