The researchers noted that disparities in perceptions of health care satisfaction were observed among Black and Hispanic patients.
Compared with white patients, Black patients were 2.5 times more likely to mention issues related to bedside manners; for example, issues with the level of personal attention and/or care received and a lack of sympathy and/or compassion from staff (20% vs. 8%; P < .1), according to the findings. Black patients were more than five times more likely than white patients to describe the team that provided their care as “careless” (11% vs. 2%; P < .5). Compared with white patients, Hispanic patients were 2.5 times more likely to describe their care team as “aggressive” (10% vs. 4%; P < .1), the researchers reported.
Similar percentages of white, Black and Hispanic patients reported positive perceptions, such as describing their care team as “friendly” and “attentive” and were overall satisfied with the care delivered.
These findings add to the “important growing understanding of ethnicity as its own variable,” Thomas F. Oppelt, PharmD, senior medical director of U.S. medical affairs at Gilead Sciences, told Healio. “The biggest conclusion is that [for these patients with COVID-19 in this survey] their ethnicity will impact everything — not only from getting to the institution or hospital, but for follow-up and understanding of their disease and care — so extra care needs to be taken to understand their perspective throughout the entire treatment paradigm.”