I hope that you do not think all EDs are like this, and if you really were treated this way, you need to talk to an administrator at the hospital. If it ever happens again, ask to talk to an administrator while you’re still there.

I worked in an auto repair facility, so I will use this analogy. Two people bring their cars in for running problems. One can outline when the issue happens by telling me at what speed, engine temp, how long it needs to be driven and when the issue started.
The other person only tells me, it runs funny, put it on the computer.

Guess which is most likely to have the better outcome? Barring an obvious medical issue like a broken limb, I would have to believe that the dr. is going dispense meds based on observation and the patient’s ability to describe the issue.

(On a side note, the number of cases where this might happen is almost surely very small — absent malpractice, any patient for whom a drug is clearly indicated is going to get it in the ER. But it is easy for me to see how race might creep subconsciously into the mind decision of some doctor at 2:00 AM in, say, an ER downtown Oakland or Saint Louis, who is treating a patient with for whom narcotics are only marginally indicated. And it only takes a few deviants to create a “trend” in the whole. That’s all I am really saying.)

Again, I really don’t see the issue as bigotry or conscious racism. But can’t you imagine a few tired doctors across the country reaching hasty conclusions? It’s hard for me not to . . .

Finnally, thanks for the awesome blog. It is one the select few for which I have an RSS feed to my email. I look forward to more of your good work in ‘08.

I’m not sure I can buy into the education theory.

More likely is that blacks receive fewer narcotics because, on average, American whites think blacks are more likely to be criminals, and because, on average, American ER doctors are American whites. That’s unfortunate (for many reasons) but that’s the state of affairs right now.

I am very irritated with the study for many of the reasons you described. It reeks of a sensationalized tenure stunt. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the whole study is flawed.

I mean, wouldn’t you be even more surprised if a study were released that said blacks and whites are prescribed narcotics identically? I would . . .

No hard feelings here, by the way. I think there are far more useful places for those researchers to have put their time and energy (e.g., pharmaceutical companies role in research/abuse of ER resources by frequent fliers/heath care access in rural areas, etc.) and I am irritated that news coverage of this rather trivial issue is distracting people from the much more important problems facing American health care.

But I also think that — all other factors being equal — ER docs are less likely to give narcs to a black man than a white one.

I’m not sure what makes you think this. If studies like this perpetuate these feelings, then these researchers have made the practice of medicine worse, not better, with their paper. I have to reiterate that I don’t see bigotry in the ED, and I’ve worked in a lot of EDs. FWIW. - WC

If proven, this could be another one in a plethora of confounding factors that make the authors conclusions of bigotry a bunch of hogwash. -WC