Engaging Dialogue on Microaggressions in Emergency Medicine

Reference: Punches et al. Patient Perceptions of Microaggressions and Discrimination Towards Patients During Emergency Department Care. AEM Dec 2023 Date: December 14, 2023 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Chris Bond is an emergency medicine physician and assistant Professor at the University of Calgary. He is also an avid FOAM supporter/producer through various online outlets including TheSGEM. Case: A 57-year-old Chinese woman presents to the emergency department (ED) with chest pain. She speaks some English, but it is her second language. It is a very busy day, and you proceed to ask her questions in rapid succession. You roll your eyes when you must repeat yourself and ask in a louder and louder voice in order to get a response. Background: Patient experiences of care are associated with health outcomes and may impact perspectives of ED care and the patient recovery process.(1-5) Perceptions of discrimination in healthcare are linked to delays in seeking medical treatment, nonadherence to clinician recommendations, and mistrust of clinicians and the healthcare system.(6-7) We looked at deaf and hard-of-hearing patients in the ED on SGEM#383. Microaggressions are discriminatory behaviors that may be subtle or unintentional but may disempower affected individuals leading to differential care and worse healthcare outcomes.(7-10) Discrimination, implicit bias and microaggressions are common in healthcare encounters involving persons from marginalized groups.(11-17) Microaggressions and discrimination towards patients have been studied in other healthcare settings, but there has been little research on this topic that specifically investigates EDs.(10-11) The ED is a unique part of the healthcare system due to its inherent chaotic environment, time constraints and lack of prior patient-staff interaction. Clinical Question: How can patient perceptions of microaggressions that occur during an ED visit inform potential interventions and prevent future occurrences? Reference: Punches el al. Patient Perceptions of Microaggressions and Discrimination Towards Patients During Emergency Department Care. AEM Dec 2023. As this is a qualitative study, we will use a modified PICO question (PIC): Population: Adult, English speaking patients visiting one of two urban emergency departments in a Midwest US city. Interest: Exploring patient experiences of discrimination during their ED visit. Context: Improving patient care and reducing microaggressions from ED staff This is an SGEMHOP episode, and it is our pleasure to introduce Dr. Lauren Southerland. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at The Ohio State University. Her research interests include clinical process improvement in the ED and implementation science, and she focuses on the care of vulnerable populations, most often older adults or others lacking capacity or capabilities. This study used a mixed methods sequential explanatory approach whereby the researchers collected quantitative data on experiences of discrimination using the DMS tool, followed by qualitative data through a semi-structured interview. Dr. Lauren Southerland As many of us have over the past four years, we were looking at our emergency care and interested in whether our practice was contributing to disparities. Additionally, many of us in medicine have witnessed or experienced microaggressions, and we wondered if our ED care was contributing to patients feeling discriminated against.  So, we looked at the available research and found that no one really had a good answer for our question, and the obvious solution to us was to ask patients about their experiences. The sequential, mixed methods design came about because we didn’t want to do interviews during the ED visit, as that could make patients feel uncomfortable or like they were reporting on their healthcare workers. But we also know that once someone leaves the ED to go home it is often ha...