Posted on 01/15/2022 10:39:53 AM PST by SeekAndFind
One of the largest hospital systems in the country is dropping its policy that counted race as a more important factor in determining COVID-19 treatment options than diabetes, obesity, asthma, and hypertension combined.
This silliness was allowed at SSM Health, a nominally Catholic health system that operates 23 hospitals across Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. All hospital patients are “scored” as a means of triage in order to give those most in need priority treatment. SSM Health ignored the severity of a patient’s conditions in order to make race a weightier determining factor.
SSM Health, a Catholic health system that operates 23 hospitals across Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, began using the scoring system last year to allocate scarce doses of Regeneron, the antibody cocktail that President Donald Trump credited for his recovery from COVID-19. A patient must score at least 20 points to qualify for the drug. The rubric gives three points to patients with diabetes, one for obesity, one for asthma, and one for hypertension, for a total of six points. Identifying as “Non-White or Hispanic” race, on the other hand, nets a patient seven points, regardless of age or underlying conditions.
As an ignorant layman, I would ask why in God’s name this isn’t considered radically unethical. But apparently, unequal outcomes between races trumps ethics and common sense when treating illness.
SSM Health gave a statement to the Free Beacon that denied using the race-based scoring system (they stopped using it last year). But they defended the practice anyway, stating that “early versions of risk calculators across the nation appropriately included race and gender criteria based on initial outcomes.”
The way the scoring system was used in practice was astonishingly stupid.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
According to an internal memo obtained by the Free Beacon, the SSM scoring system was “based off the Utah Hospital Association and Utah Health Risk Stratification criteria,” which automatically gave two extra points to minority patients—the same amount as diabetes and obesity. The now-defunct rubric is much more radical, prioritizing healthy minorities over white patients with many of the largest risk factors for COVID-19. A 49-year-old white woman with hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and asthma would only get 19 points under the rubric, just shy of the 20 point threshold for antibody therapy. But a 50-year-old black woman with no underlying health conditions would receive 22 points, making her eligible.
Was this really necessary? The radical left talking point is that people of color are dying of COVID-19 more often than white people (“racism,” of course), and unequal outcomes must be addressed in the name of “social justice.”
Phooey.
I call BS on them; they dropped it because their reverse-psychology stunt flopped. Many blacks STILL don’t want the hot shots - and they’ve been completely vindicated.
God bless them.
Extremely racist and stupid policy. Lawsuits were necessary. Why did they think going back to 1920s segregation was a good idea?
I say sue them anyway.
Perhaps they publicly dropped it but perhaps not in practice.
Systemic racism Liberal style. In other words.....authentic. Not made up. Got to give em credit. When do it, they do it right.
and if there are no significant numbers of poc in your geographic area???
guess nobody can get it no matter what then
It’s just more kowtowing.
if their “legal” OK’d this policy, i’d say they need better council...
While blacks from a statistical basis have higher percentages of obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and many other conditions those are generally related to diet, exercise, work conditions, financial and educational factors.
I have no problem with some doctor prescribing medicines based on BMI, percent of body fat, blood pressure reading, blood type, amount of Cortisol in the blood, etc.; I do object to using “race” as a proxy for those things.
Besides, “race” is not an exact method of classification. One can self-identify as “native American” (thank you Senator Elizabeth Warren) with little factual basis. Similarly, the story of the Rachel Dozal the NAACP Spokane, WA Office President shows how someone who is “white” can self-identify as “black” and get away with it for decades.
If you have watched many episodes of Finding your Roots TV show, you will know that many people of color has “passed” for whites for a long, long time.
*All* libtard government sponsored racism like this should be met with lawsuits. 🤪
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