53 Dr.

Stereotype
I argue that doctors are biased when they are treating certain patients based on their
appearance and race. I recently had sprained my ankle playing basketball and had to go to the
hospital. I went to a public hospital that is 20 minutes away from me because the one nearby
isnt as good as this one. Its located in a generally wealthy town with mostly white people. Even
though I had health insurance I was forced to wait more than 3 hours just to get an x-ray for my
ankle. I definitely didnt have the best health insurance in the world but I believe it was better
than average. It took an hour before the doctor even came to see me. The waiting wasnt as bad
as the fact that they didnt even put me in my own room. I had to sit in the waiting area in front
of all of the staff and patients. I know all I had was a sprained ankle but there were two rooms
empty I couldve went in. I feel if I was white I couldve had a better experience there.
The problem with my experience in the hospital exists because of racial and class bias in
todays society. Society is geared towards white wealthy majorities. The reason is because of the
social and economic inequalities faced by many minorities. The health care industry prefers
white wealthy customers to other races. They believe that white people are generally better
customers and dont put up as much as a problem as other races. People see minorities in lower
economic and social communities. They then believe that the reason they are in those conditions
is because of their race. People see these minorities committing crime and associate everyone
else of the same color to do the same. They expect the minorities to do something bad whenever
they see them, which then force the minorities to do exactly what people expect of them.
Even though doctors have to treat and diagnose patients the same way there is a lot of
evidence that doctors treat white patients better than black patients. There was a study done from
1998 to 2002 that compared the quality of medical-visit communication between physician and
patients among African American versus white patients. They analyzed the data from 458
African American and white patients who visited 61 physicians in the Baltimore metropolitan
area and found a lot differences between medical visits by African American versus White
patients. They found that Both African American patients and their physicians exhibited lower
levels of positive affect than white patients and their physicians did.
1
This shows that African
Americans tend to have less of a positive effect from a medical visit then their white
counterparts. The article also showed that Physicians were 23% more verbally dominant and
engaged in 33% less patient-centered communication with African American patients than with
white patients.
2
Even if the doctor doesnt consider him to be a racist he unconsciously
communicates better with white patients then he does with African Americans.
Race isnt the only thing that constitutes bias in the health care industry. Doctors judge
people based on their appearance and then continue to diagnose them using their judgment.
There have been many examples of patient bias in many hospitals in America due to appearance
throughout history. Mr. S was a patient in Rikers Island during the 1990s, and he was tested for
AIDS and it turned out he was HIV positive. He was in prison, was a regular drug user, had
hepatitis C and a bunch of tattoos. He had a lot of tattoos and his body showed many signs of
years of drug abuse. No one would have been surprised if he was HIV positive. But the thing
was that he actually wasnt. After several years of testing, the first diagnosis was wrong. Mr. S
was a false positive. It couldve been that the initial test was wrong but the doctors and nurses
assumed he was just HIV positive because of his appearance. Because of their stereotype, Mr. S

1
Cooper, L. A.. "Patient Race/Ethnicity And Quality Of Patient-Physician Communication During
Medical Visits." American Journal of Public Health 94: 2084-2090.
http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.94.12.2084#_i7 (accessed May 2, 2014).
2
Cooper, L. A ..
had to go through so much unnecessary treatment and drugs. He didnt fit the picture
3
was
what most people said after a couple of years. Mr. S stopped abusing drugs and started
organizing his life. When asked what he thought about the misdiagnosis he said, It is what it is.
He had so many other problems in his life he didnt even care that he was misdiagnosed. These
stereotypes we make of people ultimately harm the lives of the very same people. We should
change how people and the media portray stereotypes of people. For the sake of Mr. S and
countless others we have to get rid of stereotypes and start treating people as individuals and not
what the media says about them.
In 15 minutes I was back in my office, having learned another lesson about practicing
medicine. Health care professionals should not prejudge new patients. We must take them as
they come, and evaluate them as individuals. We never know what's behind the next exam room
door. I guess that's why it's called the practice of medicine, from our first day as physicians to
our last.
4
This is an actual quote by a doctor who had his own presumptions about people before
one of the patients changed his opinion. Most doctors and even this doctor prejudged patients
before he got to know them. Their argument is that a doctor with 20 years of medical experience
usually uses instincts and stereotypes to assume a patients conditions. They use stereotypes to
diagnose and somewhat understand what the patient has a problem with. This doctor had an
appointment with a patient with back problems. He assumed the patient just wanted codeine that
is a narcotic drug that treats mild to moderate pain. The patient was 6 foot 5 and nearly 300
pounds of muscle. The doctor quickly assumed that he abuses drug, probably wants a sick slip
and wants disability so he started asking him questions about his pain. The patient had a gunshot

3
Ofri, Danielle. "Stereotyping Patients, and Their Ailments." The New York Times, , sec. D6,
June 20, 2011.
4
Fleming, Richard L. ""So much for snap judgments about patients: This doctor's mistaken
assumptions taught him the danger of stereotyping."." Medical Economics , Jan 25, 2002, 48 .
wound in prison. So the doctor asked if he wants some codeine and the patient angrily refused
saying he would never touch that stuff. Then the doctor asks if he wants a work slip and he
refused again saying he can work through the pain.
5
That is why health care professionals
shouldnt judge people based on their looks and presumed stereotypes.
In both articles the health care professionals judged their patients without prior
knowledge. Both the 300-pound man and the drug user were stereotyped because of the way
society looks at people. Without stereotypes life for both these people couldve been better.
People wouldnt be scared of the large muscular man or disgusted at the drug user and not judge
them. But Im not blaming my experience on the hospital; Im blaming todays society as a
whole. I also have been unfair when I used to work at a hotel. At times when I worked I refused
a room to people who werent dressed nice or smelled bad. I judged those people and decided
that they will ruin the room. I didnt want to refuse them a room but if they did mess up the room
it wouldve been my fault. My manager wouldve yelled at me because I sold them the room in
the first place. So I decided not to risk it and judge every person that came in. I believe that
society shouldnt refuse or not give their best service to people if they arent as rich or well off as
others.
What emerges is that many doctors and other people in the health care industry judge
people based on their race or their appearance. Importantly we are risking the lives of many
people just because of either their race or appearance brought on by society. In order for us to
change the health care industry we must first change society as a whole. And in order for society
to change we must change ourselves. We must change the way we see other people and look at

5
Fleming, Richard L. ""So much for snap judgments about patients: This doctor's mistaken
assumptions taught him the danger of stereotyping."." Medical Economics , Jan 25, 2002, 48 .
what theyve been through. When everyone can change that we can then change society for the
better.