VIDEO: How providers can recognize, address the impact of bias in patient care

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Many doctors are hearing in the last few years, more and more conversation in our professional societies, in the public space, even in the media space around implicit bias and discrimination in medical care and medical services. And we are learning more and more about the impact on outcomes for our patients. Implicit biases is an unconscious bias against someone that really has direct impact on their ability to be well. It impacts clinical care decision-making. It impacts the trust that patients have for us when we’re seeking care. And so, it is certainly of importance to address the role of implicit bias, but it’s also important to know that simply acknowledging your bias is not going to be enough to be able to give people what they need in their care experience. And so it does fall to us as health care providers to address these impacts and to work to mitigate the role that bias has. It’s also important to understand that implicit bias isn’t the only bias that shows up in care for many of our patients. Although we describe it as implicit, it is very explicit to them.

So, being aware of what our waiting rooms look like, what our offices look like, do we have pictures of folks that are representative of the community that we serve? Do we have folks in our office that speak the same language, that come from the same communities as the person that we’re caring for, or the community that we’re caring for? All of those things go a long way to helping to eliminate discrimination in our health care delivery spaces and to improve outcomes for the people that we care for. It is also really critical that we don’t simply focus on interpersonal discrimination or racism or gender depression in our care models. We also have to understand that there are systemic and structural barriers that are often grounded in centuries of inequity and disparity that we are also up against. Those things feed our individual biases. They shape the way that people interact with the health care system and how they understand our place in it. As doctors, we are a very powerful force and often hold a lot of respect in places of power and privilege. It is our work to unpack and undo the impact of bias, racism, gender depression, and discrimination on the health and well-being of our communities. It continues to perpetuate inequities and does not allow everyone equal opportunity to be well. And as doctors, that is truly what we’re seeking.