HEALTH CARE EQUITY DURING A PANDEMIC

Providers and patients share perspectives on giving and receiving care

UWCHLAN » What has it been like for diverse populations to seek — and provide — health care during the coronavirus pandemic?

That was the focus of the Chester County Economic Development Council’s third annual Health Care Connect Innovators Forum, held virtually on Wednesday, Oct. 28.

Three regional health care leaders shared their perspectives during the forum, with an audience of health care professionals and nursing students. The program highlighted peer perspectives on COVID- 19 experiences for diverse populations, social pressures and system advances in the quality of clinical care, according to a press release.

Speakers included Talonda Rogers MSN, RN; Vanessa Briggs, MBS, RD, president and CEO of Brandywine Health Foundation; and Dr. Tony S. Reed, MD, MBA, executive vice president, chief medical offi cer, Temple University Health System.

Rogers shared her perspective not only as a black female nurse, author and educator, but also her experiences as a patient. Drawing on CDC statistics that show women of color are 2 ½ times more likely to die from pregnancyrelated causes than white women, she shared her own experience delivering a still born son

at 40 weeks as she was on the brink of a diabetic coma. Rogers reported lack of responsiveness from medical staff , a severe delay in treatment, as well as symptoms of gestational diabetes that went unnoticed.

“There’s a very fine line between clinical intuition and unconscious bias,” Rogers said in the release. “What we are told as women of color is that it’s all in your head, all women complain of

DR. TONY S. REED, MD, MBA

VANESSA BRIGGS, MBS, RD

TALONDA ROGERS, MSN, RN