Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1398595
41 PATIENT & CAREGIVER EXPERIENCE IU Health caregivers lacked 'empathy and compassion' for Black physician who died of COVID-19, review finds By Mackenzie Bean I ndianapolis-based Indiana University Health is working to address implicit ra- cial bias among staff and improve cultural competency aer an external review found a "lack of empathy and compassion" in the care of a Black physician being treated at the system for COVID-19 late last year, CEO Dennis Murphy said May 12. Susan Moore, MD, was diagnosed with COVID-19 Nov. 29, 2020, and admitted to Carmel, Ind.-based IU Health North Hospital. Dr. Moore said the white physician who was treating her downplayed her pain complaints and said he felt uncomfortable giving her more drugs. "I was crushed. He made me feel like I was a drug addict," she said in a Dec. 4 Face- book video taken from her hospital bed. "I maintain if I was white, I wouldn't have to go through that." Dr. Moore died of complications from the virus Dec. 20 at age 52. Aer her death, Mr. Murphy called for an external review of Dr. Moore's case. A panel of six healthcare experts determined that medical management and technical care did not contribute to Dr. Moore's death. However, they found a lack of cultural com- petence among providers and said "several caregivers lacked empathy, compassion and awareness of implicit racial bias in the deliv- ery and communication of Dr. Moore's care." "We owe it to our patients to always show up for them, to treat them with dignity and respect, to appreciate their perspectives, and to validate their feelings when they are in our care," Mr. Murphy wrote in a statement on IU Health's website. "We did not live up to these values with Dr. Moore and acknowl- edge that we have more to do to become a more diverse, inclusive and anti-racist health system." IU Health is developing a timeline and accountability structure for this work based on the panel's recommendations, which includes refining its patient advocacy system and conducting more staff training and edu- cation on diversity, equity and inclusion. n Patient room location may affect patient satisfaction, study finds By Hannah Mitchell R esearchers from New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania used tracking chips in nurses' badges to investigate how a facility's layout affected nurses' behavior and patient care, according to a June 2 report published in Yale Insights. The study followed five months of interactions between 217 nurses and 30,000 patients in an undisclosed hospital's emergency department. Three study findings: 1. Nurses visited distant rooms less frequently, but for longer periods of time. The most distant rooms received about 1.4 fewer visits per hour from nurses (a 50 percent decrease), but visits were one minute longer (a 50 percent increase). 2. There was no significant increase in emergency room vis- its or patient deaths in patients whose rooms were farther from the nurses' station. 3. Patients whose rooms were farther from the nurses' station waited longer in between visits and were more likely to use their call buttons more often. Frequent use of call buttons is closely associated with a decrease in patient satisfaction and dims the perceived quality of care. n Scrubs worthy of a runway? How medical apparel is getting a designer touch By Mackenzie Bean F ace masks quickly transformed from medical gear to an accessory of self-expression during the pandem- ic. Now, the same trend is happening with scrubs, The New York Times reported June 9. Designers and medical apparel companies are increasing- ly partnering "to reposition what may be one of the larg- est, and most overlooked, professional sectors as the Next Great Fashion Frontier," the Times said. For example, loungewear designer Josie Natori is team- ing up with the healthcare apparel company Care+Wear to create a line of scrubs inspired by her best-selling pa- jamas. And Figs, a scrubs company pitched as the "Lulu- lemon of medical clothing," went public in May with a $4.5 billion valuation. "It's the one way that everyone in the hospital can express themselves," Chaitenya Razdan, the founder of Care+Wear, said of clinicians' clothing choices at work. "When you think about how we express ourselves when we go into work, it's crazy that nurses and doctors haven't his- torically been given that opportunity," he told the Times. n