Becker's Hospital Review

32 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING To counteract their own biases, Dr. Haye recommends that clinicians establish a personal system of checks and balances to ensure that all patients are treated equally. In her own practice, she said she uses the litmus test of asking herself with respect to a patient she is attending, "Would I treat my mother, my grandmother or my sister that way?" "It's not foolproof, it's very difficult and it takes a lot of time to develop that reflex of being aware and checking yourself, but it's really important that we have the discussion so that everybody can begin the process of implementing that for themselves," Dr. Haye said. Forging ahead on health equity also requires speaking up In a perfect healthcare world, physicians would not only be self-aware about their own implicit biases and actively working to correct them, but would also actively speak up when they observe biased behavior on the part of colleagues. Dr. Haye, who mentors aspiring clinicians, said one of the key ideas she tries to impart to them is the importance of being an active observer of their environment. "If you see something that doesn't quite look right, don't be afraid to call it out if it is in the benefit of the patient," she said. "Part of our role is not only addressing our personal biases, but also being a patient advocate as it might help someone else to reflect on their behavior and understand how they could improve." Conclusion While the crisis provoked by COVID-19 has thrust into view the magnitude of health disparities in the U.S., differences in maternal mortality rates along racial and ethnic lines predate the pandemic. As numerous studies have shown, those disparities are often attributable to institutional factors and have complex root causes — and it is undeniable that implicit bias plays an important role in them. "Black women who are highly educated, have access to early prenatal care, are compliant with all of their doctors' visits, screening evaluations, eat well and have the benefit of a higher income level, are still dying at a higher rate than their white counterparts," Dr. Haye said. "A lot of it has to do with bias." To overcome these ingrained tendencies across clinical specialties, she urged healthcare professionals to become more educated on this topic with the goal of developing a better self-awareness, increased reflection and a system of internal checks and balances to guide the way. n At TeamHealth, our purpose is to perfect the practice of medicine, every day, in everything we do. We are proud to be the leading physician practice in the U.S., driven by our commitment to quality and safety and supported by our world- class operating team. To improve the experience of our physicians and advanced practice clinicians, we empower clinicians to act on what they believe is right, free clinicians from distractions so they can focus on patient care, invest in learning and development to promote growth in the clinical field and foster an environment where continuous improvement is a shared priority. Through our more than 15,000 affiliated healthcare professionals and advanced practice clinicians, TeamHealth offers emergency medicine, hospital medicine, critical care, anesthesiology, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, obstetrics, ambulatory care, post-acute care, acute behavioral health, virtual care and medical call center solutions to approximately 2,900 acute and post-acute facilities and physician groups nationwide. "If you see something that doesn't quite look right, don't be afraid to call it out if it is in the benefit of the patient."

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