Study shows that Black people wait for the longest in the ER for chest pain evaluation, more specifically Black women, according to a study published in the Journal of American Heart Association. The study revealed that women are likely to wait 11 minutes longer than men for care in the ER when complaining about chest pain. In comparison, Black women are likely to wait 24 minutes longer than white men and 15 minutes longer than white women.
The study sampled 4000 patient records representing 29 million emergency room visits among adults 18 to 55 years old. All of the patients had gone to the ER complaining about chest pains. There were two categories for race data: white and any race that is not white. 89% of those white were non-Hispanic Black. Gender comparisons revealed that women waited 11 minutes longer for attention from a health care professional. Additionally, they were less likely to receive an electrocardiogram than men and less likely to be admitted. The scariest data revealed that Black women wait 24 minutes longer than white men, 58 minutes versus 34 minutes.
“Whether or not the differences in chest pain evaluation directly translate into differences in outcomes, they represent a difference in the care individuals receive based on their race or sex, and that is important for us to know,” said Dr. Darcy Banco, chief resident for safety and quality in the department of medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. The reports stated that further investigations are required to uncover the reasons for the inexcusable delays. The authors concluded that information on the number of ER patients having heart attacks compared to those who weren’t insufficient.
