A first-of-its-kind survey looked at the differences in health care that minority and white patients got in some 1,500 physician practices throughout the United States. The results showed that black people and Native Americans felt like they were being offered sub-standard services, compared to the attention white patients received when visiting their doctors.
 

Dr. Hector Rodriguez, the lead author of the recent study, published in the October issue of Journal of General Internal Medicine, said "Our findings suggest that there are statistically significant ethnic disparities in physician-patient communication, access to care, and care coordination, even among comparably insured patients in a variety of health-care markets." Rodriguez is also an assistant professor of health services at the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine.
 

The current survey studied about 49,000 patients, distributed in practices throughout the country. Out of these patients, most minority members were concentrated in a few low-class practices. Many black and Hispanic patients reported the poor health care they were offered by physicians and said that communication between them and their doctors was very unsatisfactory.
 

Asian and Pacific Islander patients also complained about the way their caregivers treated them. They said that a clear difference between them and the white patients was visible in the way the doctors behaved. This type of experience can cause long-term repercussions on the way minorities are seen in the eyes of the majority.
 

While doctors say that these statistics are completely false and that they treat every patient the same way, Rodriguez believes that this can't be the case, as he says that so many people can't possibly make a problem like this one up. He proposes measures to help improve the quality of health care provided by smaller practices, where large numbers of minority individuals are concentrated. Such improvements are sure to alleviate at least some of the pressures that now exist.