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How COVID-19 Exposes Healthcare’s ‘Grim and Ever-Present Truth’
July 24, 2020
Most of us look at the COVID-19 pandemic as a frightening, negative time, but for Sarah Lewis, vice president of health equity at Hartford HealthCare, the forced isolation left Americans watching news accounts of police brutality and healthcare disparities — and responding in historically significant ways.
This caused us to examine the pervasiveness of racial inequity – which Lewis calls a “grim and ever-present truth” in our society.
Listen to Sarah’s interview with Hartford HealthCare’s Steve Coates:
Numbers tell that grim truth. Consider that, in 1950, death rates from coronary heart disease were comparable for blacks and whites. By 2000, the death rate for blacks was 30 percent higher than whites. Blacks now have a 30 percent higher rate of death from cancer than whites.
Life expectancy of a black male is 68 compared to 75 for a white male. Black females also live shorter lives, an average of 75 years, compared with white females at 80 years. Infant mortality rates are 6 percent for whites, 14 percent for blacks.
Social factors like income, location and education level drive these numbers. In her role at Hartford HealthCare, Lewis examines such numbers. While she calls it “nerdy” to do so, it’s where she finds reinforcement for the work she and the system are doing to address inequity. It’s a job for everyone, though, and she suggests we address our implicit bias by talking to others, reading and listening.
One way to affect the future of healthcare and change inequity is to fill out your Census form, which you can do by clicking here. (The census determines funding directed to our cities, counties and state.) Lewis also suggests reading books like “So You Want to Talk about Race,” by Ijeoma Oluo, as she says “you challenge yourself to see what kind of assumptions you have.”
Listen and subscribe to Hartford HealthCare’s More Life series on Apple Podcasts by clicking here.
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