The cost of unequal healthcare is measured in human life, says Dr. Stephen Lockhart, the African American chief medical officer at Sutter Health, a non-profit healthcare network centered in Sacramento that serves 3 million people in 24 hospitals located across Northern California.
Even when Blacks in California have health insurance, the study revealed that African Americans may not seek testing and care until their illnesses become emergencies — when the likelihood of dying is highest.
Lockhart and the researchers at Sutter say the study points to how socioeconomic variables can factor into the high rates of African American infection, hospitalizations and death.
The researchers also applied the data to its Health Equity Index, a metric Sutter Health has used in a similar study on asthma, to come up with the findings of the COVID-19 report.
“The real value of the study lies not in the disparities it reveals but in its utility to inform our work to develop solutions that will address the equity gaps we are seeing with programs such as community outreach and engagement in at-risk neighborhoods,” said Kristen M.J. Azar, a registered nurse, public health professional, lead author of the study and a research scientist at the Sutter Health Center for Health Systems Research.
