Washington, D.C., September 20, 2004
– The American Public Health Association today supported the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Health Workforce’s recommendations for addressing the scarcity of minorities in the U.S. health work force, despite the nation’s growing diversity.
In its report, Missing Persons: Minorities in the Health Professions, the Sullivan Commission, named for its chair, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis W. Sullivan, MD, issued 37 recommendations to address the root causes of the nation’s underrepresentation of minority health professionals, including nurses, doctors and dentists. The Commission found that failure to reverse this trend could place the health of at least one-third of the nation’s citizens at risk as health care providers become further disconnected from the minority populations they serve.
“The dearth of minority health professionals directly contributes to the nation’s crisis of lower quality of health care and higher rates of illness and disability among a growing number of residents,” said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “We see the Sullivan Commission’s report as a concrete blueprint to removing obstacles to minorities receiving quality health care from professionals who reflect and understand their needs.”
Together, African Americans, Hispanic Americans and American Indians make up more than 25 percent of the U.S. population but only 9 percent of the nation’s nurses, 6 percent of its physicians and 5 percent of dentists. Minorities make up less than 10 percent of baccalaureate nursing faculties, 8.6 percent of dental school faculties and 4.2 percent of medical school faculties. A study by the Institute of Medicine recommends increasing the number of minority health professionals to help eliminate health disparities.
The Commission’s recommendations include increased funding for research about racial disparities in health, language training for health professionals and the passage of federal legislation that will ensure the development of a diverse work force. The group also suggests that the president appoint an advisory council or interagency task force on health work force diversity.
“We look forward to seeing the implementation of these strategies,” Benjamin said. “Our nation’s population is becoming increasingly diverse, and our health work force should reflect that. Once the work force better reflects the nation’s demographics, quality and access to health care should improve for minority patients.”
The Commission is an outgrowth of a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to Duke University School of Medicine. The group consists of 15 health, education, legal and business leaders who held six field hearings and a nationally broadcast town hall meeting in the past year to identify solutions.