Discrimination In Hospitals

Medicine itself has drastically changed over the last century, but the environment and health care provided at the hospitals have not changed much. Patients still lie down on the stiff plastic mattress that makes crinkling sounds. The silver metal rails that are on both ends of the bed still remain the same with an attached cord for both the bed and the TV. The main differences between hospitals today and a century ago are that there are safer use of anesthesia, short term stay, and no discrimination based on race, religion and gender.
Many people take anesthesia for granted and cannot imagine surgery without it. Anesthetics are widely used throughout major and even minor surgeries. There are two types of anesthetics used, general and regional. General anesthesia, will put the patient to sleep during the operation. Shortly after the end of surgery, the patient will awaken and be transferred to a recovery room. The recovering patient’s heart rate, blood pressure, …show more content…
Hospitals were segregated by race until the 1960’s. African Americans were in a different hospital/floor than the whites in the 1900’s. Today, there is one hosptial for everyone and no one is denied care. According to American Journal of Public Health, some hospitals treated patients of certain races only, while other facilities were segregated by floor or sections, with better care provided for caucasian patients. If a doctor or nurse discriminated against a patient, a lawsuit would be filed and the care providers would more than likely lose their job. Back then, no one would file a lawsuit because they did not stand a chance to win. Doctors were mostly caucasian, but training was available to black doctors. Hospitals today have every race and gender working under one roof. The National Association for The Advancement of Colored People in the late 1960s helped eliminate racial discrimination in