Dr. Forch’s wake-up call to the medical school (opinion)

As a new medical student, I did not fully understand the importance of his statement at that time. However, with the rapid spread of Covid-19, affecting communities across the country and exposing the disparities in our healthcare system, Dr. Forch’s words have taken on a whole new meaning.
On March 20, 2020, it became known to medical students as Matchday. I became a physician at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.

Jefferson was my first choice for several reasons. For starters, it’s close to my family in Pennsylvania. It is also a hospital specializing in medical education, healthcare innovation and the highest quality patient care. But most important to me is that Jefferson embraces diversity and inclusiveness. This is because Jefferson helps many low-income, marginalized people.
That is part of the reason Jefferson serves such a diverse community. Its flagship hospital is located in Center City, a major district and cultural center of downtown Philadelphia. The area has a vibrant African American, Asian, Latino community and a large LGBTQ community.
Some of these communities, including the Black Community, continue to be part of the city’s poorest underserved areas. And that reality is clearer than the outcome of healthcare. As mentioned in the 2019 city report, Health of the City, black men and women in Philadelphia have the lowest life expectancy of any racial group in the city. Black men also often suffer from heart and kidney disease, and black children are more hospitalized for asthma attacks.
But I was still a few months until I was able to jump into a new career and help Jefferson deal with some of these health care consequences after I got a match. But there were complex factors. The number of cases of Covid-19 is increasing, exceeding 1,000,000 in the United States, a few weeks before graduation.
When I finally arrived on virtual graduation day, I helped lead the class and take the Oath of Hippocrates. Graduation has certainly been about many of the achievements achieved in the last four years, but it also gave me time to think about the new challenges and opportunities to become a resident physician in Philadelphia during this pandemic.
We have found that the health care disparities affecting Philadelphia’s color community are equally evident during Covid-19. As of late June, of the 25,443 coronavirus-positive cases in the city, black residents accounted for just over 46%, but only 40% of the population.
They were also more hospitalized than other racial groups and were more likely to encounter serious complications from Covid-19. According to the city’s Department of Health, black patients account for more than half of the coronavirus deaths in Philadelphia.
In addition, black and Hispanic patients are more likely to have low wages or essential jobs in the city, live a higher risk of getting the virus, and live in areas or homes where it is difficult to practice in society or at home. You are more likely to be out. distance.

Of course, Philadelphia’s problems reflect what we see at the national level. Minority patients perceive the effects of the pandemic more than their white counterparts, and face disproportionately more regulation on the issue of social distance.
However, these numbers are particularly severe to me as state medical data show that as an internal medicine intern you enter the facility with the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the city.
An agency that is also responsible for absorbing a large number of patients (most of whom are under-treated) after Hanemann University Hospital in Center City closed last year. And I’m worried about my own risk of exposure, but even more worrisome is these striking racial disparities in health care, both in Philadelphia and across the country.
To be an effective healthcare provider, my colleagues and I must do more than treat individual patients at the bedside. We must explore the disparities that affect the communities we serve. The social determinants of health — the complex situations in which people are born and alive — play an important role in health outcomes. And factors such as access to health care, affordable housing, healthy eating choices, clean water, and racial prejudice all affect overall health.
As new doctors are rooted in new cities and towns, my fellow graduates and I must strive to work together with future patients to build relationships and understand both individual and community needs. not. As a physician advocate, you can also improve access to quality healthcare, increase community involvement from other healthcare professionals, and strengthen education about the resources available to patients.
In addition to the larger systematic issues in health care, Dr. Forch’s words also speak to the community behind the walls of the hospital, especially my next resident. We have a whole new group of doctors who rely on support and morale as we take care of Covid and non-Covid patients through the hospital floor, intensive care unit and emergency room. In addition, we have the support of fellow graduates and mentors of the School of Medicine who have taught us how to adapt to ever-changing situations and have given us the foundation to tackle residential challenges during a pandemic-especially the second. The peak may be imminent.
It may have taken until my graduation date in a global infectious disease, but in order to fully understand the responsibility of my role as a doctor, I am a fellow graduate and myself and partly We hope that we can play a dual role in caring for our patients as a larger community.

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