Dozens of protesters gathered outside Cedars Sinai Medical Center on Thursday to set up a board to acknowledge the “systemic failure” of maternal care and investigate racial disparities. I requested it. It is sufficient to protect the patient.
“The people in this building have the power to change this system. We hope you do better,” said the mother of black women from Wellness, an education and advocacy group. said Gabrielle Brown, who coordinates infant health programs.
The protest was led by 4kira4moms. This is a group founded by Charles Johnson, whose wife, Kira Dixon Johnson, died of bleeding in Cedars Sinai, nearly nine years ago after a cesarean section. The widow sued Cedar Sinai and the doctors involved in her care, eventually reaching the settlement of those lawsuits.
In a statement, Cedars-Sinai said it shared “the common goal of all childbirth patients receiving high quality, safe and equitable care in 4Kira4Moms” and offered to meet with the group.
The Health System also said “over the past decade we have led substantial efforts to understand and address the impact of bias in healthcare and to promote equitable outcomes for birth patients.” .
After Kira Johnson’s death, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Civil Rights Office has launched an investigation into how pregnant patients of color are being treated in Cedars Sinai.
The agency wrote in a letter in November that its review revealed that its “evidence reveals that Cedars Sinai may have been involved in patterns of inaction and/or negligence regarding health risks associated with Black obstetric patients.” It’s done.” The Civil Rights Office then reached a voluntary agreement last month with Cedars Sinai to resolve allegations facing the healthcare system.
The agreement, which is supposed to be monitored by federal officials for three years, includes promoting access to Doulas during work and sharing investigations into suspected biased incidents reported to Cedars-Sinai. Includes procedures to improve outcomes in pregnant patients.
Johnson and other supporters say the federal agreement is not as good as it needs. 4kira4moms called on Sugi Sinai to suspend clinicians involved in discrimination and negligence, and urged them to establish an independent oversight committee to investigate racial disparities in care, among other steps. .
Gabby Albert, executive director of 4kira4moms, said what is missing from the agreement is community surveillance and “accountability – admitting there is a problem.”
The federal agreement with Cedars-Sinai was announced on January 16th, four days before President Trump took office, targeting a program focused on “diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.” In the protest, Johnson urged the Trump administration to provide funds to the HHS office for civil rights.
“If we want to ensure America is great, we cannot do that without ensuring that every mother in this country has a safe and dignified birth experience,” he cheered. .
In California, black women suffer from more than three times more mother mortality rates than white women, state data shows. Nationally, a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that maternal mortality rates could not be improved as black women declined in other groups.
Before Trump took office, the CDC website lists structural racism and implicit bias among many factors that denounce such disparities and has long been quoted by health researchers and supporters. This reflects the results of the survey. As of early February, the CDC website has been changed to eliminate references to these factors, referring only to differences between healthcare and underlying chronic conditions.
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