Indiana University Health has convened a panel of national experts on diversity and health care to investigate a high-profile case involving alleged racist treatment at the health care system’s Carmel hospital.
The six panelists, four of whom are Black, will review the circumstances surrounding the care Dr. Susan Moore received for the coronavirus at IU Health North last month. Moore said in a widely circulated video that a doctor denied her medicine, ignored her pain and sought to discharge her prematurely because she was Black.
In addition to looking into the circumstances involving Moore’s case, the panel will explore “overall patient care protocols, communication and procedures,” officials for IU Health said in an emailed statement.
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A former Indiana University School of Medicine faculty member will co-chair the panel.
A few weeks after making the video, Moore, 52, herself a doctor, died at a different area hospital.
Many have pointed to her case as yet another example of disparities in the way the health care system treats Black and other non-white patients. It’s also shined an unflattering spotlight on IU Health, the state’s largest hospital system.
IU Health began an internal review of what happened in the wake of the incident. The external panel will receive the findings from that investigation, IU Health said.
The external investigation will focus on the “clinical care, patient communication and potential bias” that Moore received, IU Health officials said. It will also examine “protocols and procedures within the contexts of bias and racism in health care, cultural competency, diversity and inclusion in the workforce, patient experience and family communications.”
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IU Health officials said the panel is expected to complete its review within weeks.
After sharing its findings with Moore’s family, IU Health officials said that the results will be shared publicly “in a way that balances transparency with respect for the family’s request for privacy.”
Co-chairs Dr. David Wilkes and Dr. Jeannette South-Paul are both leaders in clinical care and cultural competence, according to the IU Health statement. South-Paul chairs the department of family medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Formerly at IU School of Medicine, Wilkes was a finalist for the position of dean of the medical school in 2013. He left the university two years later to become dean of University of Virginia’s School of Medicine. A pulmonary specialist, Wilkes served as the executive associate dean for research affairs at Indiana University School of Medicine and assistant vice president for research at Indiana University.
Contact IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky at [email protected] Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter: @srudavsky.