There’s Another Difference Here That Makes a Big Difference September 11, 2007
Posted by Webmaster in Health Care, Racial Differences, St. Louis Local.comments closed
St. Louis ranks among the worst metropolitan areas for health disparities between black and white nursing home residents, according to a study published today in the journal Health Affairs. Only Milwaukee was worse.
The disparities stem from segregation of African-Americans into poor quality nursing homes, researchers say.
The study examined racial segregation and health disparities in nursing homes in 147 metropolitan areas. Cities in the Midwest were some of the most segregated and had the most disparate health outcomes. The South had more integrated nursing homes with less of a gap in health measures between blacks and whites.
Within a nursing home, whites and blacks receive the same treatment, the authors said. The problem is that blacks tend to be concentrated in nursing homes that provide the poorest care.
Blacks were more than three times more likely than whites to live in nursing homes whose residents are predominantly Medicaid patients.
Blacks were two times more likely than whites to live in homes that were cut off from Medicaid and Medicare payments because of poor quality care.
Nursing homes with predominantly black residents also tended to be understaffed, have smaller budgets and fare worse on performance reviews, said Vincent Mor, chairman of the Department of Community Health at Brown University and lead author of the study.
The other big difference is that the nursing homes where black patients tend to be placed in also tend to have a higher percentage of black staff.
