Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Through An Equity Lens: Illuminating The Relationships Among Social Inequities, Stigma And Discrimination, And Patient Experiences Of Emergency Health Care, Colleen Varcoe, Annette J. Browne, Vicky Bungay, Nancy Perrin, Erin Wilson, C.Nadine Wathen, David Byres, Elder Roberta Price

Nursing Publications

People who experience the greatest social inequities often have poor experiences in emergency departments (EDs) so that they are deterred from seeking care, leave without care complete, receive inadequate care, and/or return repeatedly for unre- solved problems. However, efforts to measure and monitor experiences of care rarely capture the experiences of people facing the greatest inequities, experiences of discrimination, or relationships among these variables. This analysis examined how patients’ experiences, including self-reported ratings of care, experiences of discrimination, and repeat visits vary with social and economic circumstances. Every consecutive person presenting to three diverse EDs was invited if/when they were …