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New Study: In Many U.S. Cities, Blacks More Likely Than Whites to Live in Poor Quality Nursing Homes |
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From The Commonwealth Fund: After ranking metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) based on disparities between blacks and whites in access to quality nursing homes, researchers found that 10 of the 20 nursing homes with the greatest disparities in quality of care were located in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. The metropolitan area with the greatest disparity in care is Milwaukee, where blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to live in a nursing home with significant inspection deficiencies, substantial staffing shortages, and financial problems. The study showed that inequalities in care are closely correlated to racial segregation. At the same time, researchers found that nursing homes in the South were least likely to have unequal racial distribution of residents relative to residential racial composition. And only four Southern urban centers -- Houston, West Palm Beach, Fla., Richmond, Va. and Winston-Salem, N.C. -- landed in the top 20 metropolitan areas with the highest level of racial disparities in nursing home quality. The study, supported by the Commonwealth Fund, is the first to document this relationship between racial segregation and quality disparities in U.S. nursing homes. Blacks were nearly twice as likely as whites to be located in a nursing home that was subsequently terminated from Medicare and Medicaid participation because of poor quality. They're getting different care because they live in different nursing homes," said Mor, chairman of the Department of Community Health at Brown University and lead investigator on the study.
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