Healthcare racial disparity in Windham

As the Corona Virus surges in 40 or so states, especially in the south and west, we end this week with 77 people hospitalized in Connecticut, after reaching a peak of daily hospitalizations of almost 2,000. 

Also on Friday, no one died of Covid. 

We've lost 4,348 Connecticut residents since the first recorded death, 114 days ago.

A part of this has to do with the fact that we experienced an onset of the virus earlier, but a part is also due to what we have done. Although hospitals were slow to insist on surgical masks for all patients, staff and visitors, and slow to allow the use of N95 or better for staff caring for Covid or suspected Covid patients, our members pushed back and pushed back strong on this. This fact, and the fact that we advocated in the political sphere, made a difference. Additionally, the closing of schools and businesses helped “flatten the curve” in Connecticut. For this, Governor Lamont, his staff, and the staff of state agencies like the Dept of Education, DPH, DDS and others, deserve credit.

Mostly, our healthcare, education and state employee members deserve a lot of credit. It has been their steadfast insistence for the health of the community that played a large role.

in addition to the deaths and illness this virus has brought and continues to bring to the world, it has also magnified a healthcare problem that has been with us for too long.

Racial inequality in healthcare.

People of color have been adversely affected by the virus. While it is more visible in this pandemic, it is not new. Communities of color have long been neglected in healthcare treatment. For instance, women of color are 3-4 more likely to die from a pregnancy related death compared to white women.

That is why it was so disheartening this week when Hartford Healthcare, one of the largest healthcare systems in Connecticut, announced they will seek to discontinue childbirth service at Windham Hospital.

Windham Hospital opened on April 5, 1933 and immediately started delivering babies, and has continuously done so since then.  During the Great Depression, community members scraped together dimes and nickels to the tune of $450,000 to open this community hospital. At one point the hospital delivered as many as 500 babies a year, and as recent as 2014 delivered 386 babies/year.

Hartford Healthcare projects that births will be under 100 this year and that this low rate of deliveries and difficulty recruiting staff is the reason it must stop delivering of babies at Windham.

386 babies in 2014 to less than 100.

What happened?

Hartford Healthcare acquired the community hospital.

A large OBGYN service left the hospital for Manchester.

Hartford Healthcare did not successfully recruit new doctors.

“High risk” deliveries started to be transferred to other Hartford Healthcare hospitals.

Delivery numbers dropped.

The Windham has historically experienced high poverty (29.9%) which means a larger number of Medicaid insurance patients. Medicaid does not pay as well as private insurance carriers.

The Windham area has a higher percentage of residents who speak Spanish as a first language, and it has a higher percentage of people of color than most of the rest of eastern Connecticut.

Now when an expecting mother arrives at Windham, an ambulance will need to be called to come to the hospital and the mother and baby will need to be transported to another hospital to deliver.

We need look no further for one of the reasons for inequality in healthcare for people of color, than our own former “community hospital.”

On June 1 of this year, Jeff Flaks, the CEO of Hartford Healthcare, released a public message in response to the racial disparity in this country. In it he states, “As leaders, it would be too easy to avoid this crucial conversation. It would feel normal to rest on our good works the “what” and “how” of what we do. It would seem simple to ignore the “where” and “why” health disparities persist in the very communities we have served for decades.”

On July 7, Hartford Healthcare ignored the “what,” “how,” “where,” and “why,” and added to the racial disparities in Windham.