Paul Bass Photo
NAACP’s Rawlings & Esdaile.
Armed with a new study showing low percentages of African-Americans working in or getting contracts from local hospitals, the state NAACP is exploring filing a class-action lawsuit.
State NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile and New Haven chapter President James Rawlings, the state organization’s Health Committee chair, discussed those plans in an interview with the Independent.
They pointed to results of a newly “Economic Reciprocity Initiative Healthcare Survey.”
NAACP
Based on statistics from 2009 and 2010 provided by 25 Connecticut hospitals, the survey found few blacks and Latinos on boards of directors and low percentages at most levels of employment, from nurses to doctors. The study found African-Americans represented at “above-average” rates in the lowest-skilled jobs at hospitals but otherwise as low as 2.4 percent to 6.7 percent of the director, nursing, and professional ranks. Meanwhile, according to the report, only 12 percent of Connecticut hospitals have training programs aimed at racial minorities.
Click here to read the study and view breakdowns by individual hospital. (Also see four charts with sample results posted in the body of this story.)
Perhaps the most noticeable figure: Out of more than $5 billion hospitals spent statewide with vendors, a mere $500,000 went to black businesses.
“Our community suffers when we don’t have economic equity,” said Rawlings, a former Yale-New Haven Hospital administrator. Besides the loss of potential jobs, he argued, those purchasing practices can even hurt people’s health: If people don’t have jobs, they often lack insurance. “Or they have Medicaid — which is almost like no insurance. Nobody takes those cards.”
NAACP
Esdaile noted that the survey showed the UConn Health Center spending a grand total of $30,000 out of $1.2 billion in purchases on a black contractor. A plumber.
“It was during the Christmas holiday. They couldn’t find anyone [else] to do the job. They gave him $30,000,” Esdaile remarked.
“Can black vendors deliver crutches? Can black people deliver wheelchairs? Can black people deliver cotton balls? Flowers and balloons in the gift shop? Computers? TVs?”
NAACP
Here in New Haven, Esdaile observed, “Yale-New Haven is right in the Hill section. [The former] St. Raphael’s is in the Dwight community. All of the major hospitals in the state of Connecticut are in our communities. They are huge economic engines” and have “ostracized us.”
Esdaile said the NAACP has begun consulting with attorneys about filing a class-action lawsuit seeking aggressive action by hospitals to improve minority recruitment, hiring, purchasing, and leadership policing.
NAACP
One of those attorneys is New Haven legal-aid lawyer Alexis Smith, former president of the George W. Crawford Black Bar Association (named after the city of New Haven’s first African-American corporation counsel).
Smith said attorneys are at the “very early stages of looking at this.” She said any potential legal claims would probably be made under Title VI and Title VII of the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act. The argument would be that hospitals receiving federal dollars “have certain requirements” in its hiring and other practices.
“We are disappointed that Scot Esdaile is considering a lawsuit,” responded Michele L. Sharp, spokeswoman for the Connecticut Hospital Association, which represents the institutions covered by the NAACP study.
Sharp called the study an outdated “snapshot in time.” She argued that hospitals have made dramatic strides since the time period covered by the study. The CHA has formed a “first in the nation” “diversity collaborative” to look at minority hiring and purchasing. She pointed as well to a committee on “supplier diversity” that has held four forums over the past four years. (CHA provided the video at left about the latter effort; click here to read about the most recent event.)
Twenty-eight hospitals across Connecticut has assigned over 150 staffers to the diversity collaborative’s work, Sharp said. CHA has worked with American Hospital Association’s Institute for Diversity in Health Management, the Hispanic Health Council, the Greater New England
Minority Supplier Development Council, and the NAACP on the effort as well, she said.
“Connecticut hospitals, like hospitals across the country, have as their mission to provide quality equitable care to all patients. We recognize that across the nation and in Connecticut, health disparities and low levels of hospital workforce diversity in general and among hospital leadership have been troubling and persistent issues,” the CHA stated in a release responding to the NAACP report.
The collaborative launched on Oct. 25, 2011. The data revealed in the NAACP report covered 2009 and 2010, Sharp noted. She said hospitals have also made gains in minority hiring since that time.
Esdaile said he looks forward to finding out about that. The NAACP — which he said had to fight, with the help of the governor’s office, to get hospitals to fill out the original survey — is planning to send out a new survey to chart what progress has been made.
Purchasing: "Here in New Haven, Esdaile observed, "Yale-New Haven is right in the Hill section. [The former] St. Raphael's is in the Dwight community. All of the major hospitals in the state of Connecticut are in our communities. They are huge economic engines" and have "ostracized us.""
And...I haven't seen too many businesses in these neighborhoods that could be considered "vendors".
How about redirecting your time spent researching this potential lawsuit by volunteering time in the communities mentioned to help the good people with the knowledge needed to start businesses? Then Yale will be able to source locally.
Recruiting: "Esdaile said the NAACP has begun consulting with attorneys about filing a class-action lawsuit seeking aggressive action by hospitals to improve minority recruitment, hiring":
Fighting for equality but asking for special departments? I'm confused.
On having more racial diversity on boards, developing "leadership policing." Now this is something that would be good. It would reflect on the hospital's desire to be racially diverse. Things happen from the top down afterall.