Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Doctors, nurses take a knee
UPLAND >> Hundreds of physicians, nurses and other medical staff across all four hospitals in the Crozer-Keystone Health System took a knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds Friday as a way to bring awareness to racial inequity in public health.
At Crozer-Chester Medical Center shortly after 1 p.m., staff, still clad in their scrubs, streamed out of the facility to gather on the lawn across the street from the seminary where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. studied to take a knee for the amount of time exMinneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck, killing him late last month.
In one graceful gesture - as colleagues at Delaware County Memorial Hospital, Springfield Hospital and Taylor Hospital in their respective locations did the same - the staff filled the space and took a knee as more kept coming to join and pay their respects to the movement in conjunction with others across the nation aligned with WhiteCoats4BlackLives.
Established in 2014, WhiteCoats4BlackLives is a medical organization involving physicians
and medical staff and organizations to actively engage in dismantling racism and promoting the health and well-being of people of color. Its focus is stemming out the roots of racism embedded in public health from infant mortality rates to gun violence to accessibility to health care.
Crozer trauma surgeon Dr. Amber Betool is a member of the Philadelphia Physician Moms Group, where she saw that hospitals in Philadelphia were taking a knee Friday. She and DCMH obstetrician Dr. Hayley Quant urged for the system-wide observance.
“I think it’s crucial that we all take a knee and observe 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence against racism,” Quant said in her remarks to the participants who lined Lansdowne Avenue in Upper Darby.
She explained how she sees discrepancies firsthand.
“I’m a high risk obstetrician in our health care system and when I see a black mother for her anatomy scan or I deliver her baby, I am acutely aware that this is the beginning of her worry for the safety and livelihood of her unborn or newborn baby because of the overt and systemic racism that permeates our society,” Quant said. “Racism is also a public health issue. Most relevant to me is the fact that black women die in and around childbirth at a rate higher than any other race. This bothers me and it should bother you too.”
Betool was thankful that Crozer-Keystone administration supported the observance.
“I think it’s very important as we mourn the loss of George Floyd and many other lives that have been lost that all physicians and health care workers unite to combat to fight racism and to fight for equality,” she said.
Gwendolyn A. Smith, Crozer-Keystone’s executive director of patient service, spoke to the executive support.
“I think it’s a needed thing to have because we all know this is real,” the nurse executive with 41 years of Crozer-Keystone service said. “We know that the determinants of health are determined on race and trauma so I really agree with the initiative and the physicians on this because we need to do better.”
Having working on community needs assessments dating back to 1982, Smith said she’s familiar with what the community’s needs are.
She noted that programs like Healthy Starts and Women, Infants and Children are a start. “But it’s going to take more than that because still in this country, we still have babies that are not born when they should be born because of ... poverty, it’s based on income.”
With poverty a large influence on health, Smith added, “Having equal rights and justice will make a difference.”
Both Quant and Betool explained how Friday’s moment should expand into equitable health care access for all.
“I saw a video of George Floyd’s daughter yesterday saying her daddy changed the world,” Quant said. “So, this gathering should be about more than this moment. It should mark our commitment to continue or to start to actively fight against racism in our lives and in our work.”
Betool said, “We want to give care to everyone, it doesn’t matter their race or gender.”