What’s Your Ethnicity?

We’ll be asking our patients so we can deliver the most appropriate care to all

Getting to know you

Registrars like Vicky Delgrosso of the LVH–Muhlenberg emergency department will learn more about our patients so we give the most appropriate care to all.

You can’t know what ails a patient without asking, “How are you feeling today?” The same is true about knowing a patient’s culture.

“Every patient brings his or her own cultural beliefs into a doctor’s office or hospital,” says Charlotte Buckenmyer, R.N., director of emergency services at LVH–Muhlenberg. “Identifying those beliefs helps us to better understand each patient and tailor to his or her needs. For example, knowing that someone from the Latino culture considers it a sign of respect to not make eye contact allows us to develop more effective ways to communicate with him.”

To help us learn more about a patient’s culture, registrars in our emergency departments, diagnostic care areas, doctor’s offices and clinics soon will begin asking patients a new question: “Which category best describes your race?” Registrars will use laminated cards to help patients best identify their race and ethnicity. It’s one of six projects from our Cultural Awareness Implementation Team. In the past, colleagues never asked a person’s race or ethnicity. Instead it was determined by visual observation, but that wasn’t reliable. “By asking this question, we’ll get a more accurate view of the ethnic and racial makeup of the people we care for,” says community health director Judy Sabino. “Then we can individualize the care we deliver.”

That’s important, because national trends show that the quality of care among people of different ethnic groups varies. A 2002 national report indicated that African-Americans were nearly twice as likely as Caucasians to report being treated with disrespect during health care visits, and Hispanics (regardless of language skills) were more likely than others to have difficulty communicating with their doctors.

The race and ethnicity information we collect will be part of a patient’s permanent, confidential electronic medical record. Patients do have the right to refuse to answer if they are uncomfortable.

“The ultimate goal is making sure we deliver appropriate care regardless of culture, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status,” says Buckenmyer, who leads the project. “The most effective way to do that is to ask the question.”

—Kyle Hardner

Learn more about being culturally aware
To help us all understand the importance of cultural awareness, a team led by Charlene Bergstresser, director of program development in home care, helped create a new online learning module. It includes a video and is part of the annual core training requirements all colleagues must complete through eLearning. Find out more about eLearning by clicking here.

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