Major Court Ruling on Race and Patient Hospital Rights Today

Remember the ground breaking, massive generational study the Pew Research Center released?  The one that showed that despite all of their good qualities, a vast majority of the so-called “silent generation” (those born prior to 1928) and, to a somewhat lesser degree the “greatest generation” (those born from 1928 through 1945) were, on many issues such as interracial relationships and gay marriage, unrepentant irrational bigots?  Yeah, that one.  The real world implications of that study were visible in a major court case today.

When patient’s rights swept the country ten or fifteen years ago, nursing homes, hospitals and other medical facilities began to operate with the creed that individual patients should be able to make all of the decisions possible related to their care and comfort.  Seems reasonable, right?

Apparently, some folks in these generations decided that it was necessary to leave written instructions that they were not to be cared for by anyone but their own race.  Meaning they would rather die than have a black nurse or doctor assist them if they were first on the scene. (You really can’t invent this stuff.)

This leads us to the case of nurse Brenda Chaney, an African American woman who worked in a nursing home and saw an elderly patient on the floor, unable to get up.  The patient, however, had left instructions she didn’t want to deal with black staff so Brenda couldn’t assist her.  She had to go try and find someone so as not to violate the patient’s rights.

The United States 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that despite laws allowing patients to choose their own doctor and the gender of their caregivers, applying these preferences to race goes “too far” because it violates the civil rights of the staff, which are more important than the prejudices of the patient. To that, I say glory hallelujah.  The court system is once again saying you cannot shove your irrational hatred onto society at large, even if they are morally or religiously based, as they are for some people.  The judges are doing their job.  It is not judicial activism.

How common is the problem of racist patients?  In nursing homes throughout the country, in virtually every state, this issue apparently comes up often enough that David Smith, a Drexel University professor who has studied racial integration in hospital and long-term care centers stated that nursing homes can be a hotbed of racial tension, exasperated by the fact that many cities have predominately African-American staff members with white patients.  Smith explains that part of the problem is elderly with dementia can revert back to childhood, and these are the same people who grew up during Jim Crow laws in the south.

The upside of all of this is that the current generation shows a minute fraction of the racial tensions that the older generations do, so by the time today’s 30-years-and-younger crowd is ready for popcorn and movies in the commons with their cardigans and walkers, this won’t be an issue.

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