Emergency Medical Responders Confront Racial Bias

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January 3rd, 2019

Talitha Saunders and AJ Ikamoto tidy their ambulance at the end of a recent shift. The two work as emergency medical responders in Oregon with American Medical Response in Portland. Leaders there are working to prevent any race-based disparities in treatment.

Kristian Foden-Vencil/Oregon Public Broadcasting

A recent study out of Oregon suggests emergency medical responders — EMTs and paramedics — may be treating minority patients differently from the way they treat white patients.

Specifically, the scientists found that black patients in their study were 40 percent less likely to get pain medication than their white peers.

Jamie Kennel, head of emergency medical services programs at Oregon Health and Science University and the Oregon Institute of Technology, led the research, which was presented in December at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement Scientific Symposium in Orlando, Fla.

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