Abstract
Abstract We propose and empirically implement a test for the presence of racial prejudice among emergency department (ED) physicians based on the bounceback rates of patients discharged after receiving diagnostic tests during their initial ED visit. A bounceback is defined as a return to the ED within 72 hours of being initially discharged. Applying the test to administrative data of ED visits from California and New Jersey, we do not find evidence of prejudice against black and Hispanic patients, but we find evidence of prejudice against Asians in California. We also find evidence of prejudice against male patients.
Highlights
The presence and pervasiveness of racial disparities in health care and health outcomes have been abundantly documented.1 It is conceptually useful to broadly group the various potential channels for racial disparities in health outcomes into three categories
At least in the emergency department setting, taste based discrimination does not play an important role in the racial disparities in health care
The sample used in these regressions is the set of patients who were discharged from the initial Emergency Department (ED) visits with at least one diagnostic test
Summary
The presence and pervasiveness of racial disparities in health care and health outcomes have been abundantly documented. It is conceptually useful to broadly group the various potential channels for racial disparities in health outcomes into three categories. Patients of different races may contract various illnesses at different rates Such differences may result from different exposures to environmental hazards, different life style choices, and different genetic dispositions toward illnesses. This category of mechanisms will lead to racial disparities in health prior to the interactions between patients and the health care system. Patients of different races may have differential access to health care facilities and physicians. Patients of different races may receive differential quality of care even if they have access to the same health care facility and physicians.. This paper contributes to the literature on understanding the roles of statistical discrimination and racial prejudice by the health providers in explaining the racial disparities in health outcomes, in the context of emergency care
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