Black patients experience disparities in several safety measures compared to White patients seen at the same hospital, although the data are not consistent across safety measures, according to a report on safety events from 26 states in 2017.
Data from a previous study by the Urban Institute showed that some differences in the higher rates of hospital-acquired injuries and illnesses experienced by Black patients compared to White patients are attributable to differences in hospital quality, but differences in safety events for Black and White patients in the same hospital have not been well studied, write Anuj Gangopadhyaya, PhD, senior research associate in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute, Washington, DC. The Urban Institute is a research organization supported in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
"Investigating within-hospital racial differences in patient safety is critical to understanding what progress, if any, has been made in improving racial equity in health care," he said.
In a new reportpublished by the Urban Institute, Gangopadhyaha and colleagues used 11 patient safety indicators, including four related to general patient safety and seven related to adverse events associated with surgical procedures, to assess racial disparities in the quality of inpatient care. The report was based on the experiences of Black and White patients in 2017 in 26 states.
