Maternal mortality is a severe issue in the United States. The maternal mortality issue has had the biggest impact on minority populations, with black women roughly three times more likely to die after childbirth and five times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications (Nguyen, 2023). Healthcare organizations are responding to this critical issue by integrating unconscious bias education and reevaluating clinical guidelines for managing minority patients. Changes in care standards for patient demographics are also taken into account.
Unconscious prejudice is recognized as a risk to maternity care quality, so the authorities of some states take steps to address this imbalance by introducing implicit bias training. Recognizing the seriousness of the problem, Congress even enacted legislation providing federal financing for medical and nursing schools to conduct such training. Such efforts, however, are unsuccessful in the long run (Nguyen, 2023). To develop a long-term solution, hospital systems and healthcare leaders must attempt to modify the views of their employees on an individual level.
Another step healthcare organizations have taken to address the problem of inequality is related to clinical algorithms. Standardizing care algorithms, regardless of race, has the potential to help improve these issues in medicine, but it is ambiguous. A uniform approach, on the one hand, eliminates racial differences in cesarean delivery and newborn morbidity. On the other hand, such protocols may also exacerbate disparities in under-resourced healthcare facilities. Given the limitations of other approaches, increasing attention is being paid to technologies that can contribute to overcoming racial disparities in maternal mortality. Electronic medical records and clinical decision support systems are important in eliminating injustice in healthcare since it provides healthcare personel with essential data to analyze patients’ conditions and help in making more independent decisions. Another technology, such as telemedicine, has great potential, which allows to significantly improve the access of all patients to health care specialists, regardless of race.
Reference
Nguyen, A. (2023). Reforming institutions, integrating health technology to address maternal mortality gap. Clinical Advisor. Web.