Civil Rights and Health Care
on February 6, 2010
Excerpts from Regina Holliday's recent post, Rosa Parks in Health Care
"Within medicine, we are living in our time of controversy. People are taking sides: supporting some types of reform and not others. On January 28th 2010, I attended a meeting of a Health 2.0 group. This was the "8th month" check up. Most of us had met before, on May 27th 2009. At that meeting, we decided real-time patient access to the medical record was a first priority in attaining better medical outcomes for the patient and family. We spent the next eight months working feverishly toward that goal..."
Rosa Parks / Marshall D. Rumbaugh / 1983 / Painted limewood / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
"I often compare the patients' rights struggle with the civil rights era. Imagine the civil rights era without Rosa Parks. Imagine a world where she gave up her seat and moved along quietly. Would that world be the world we live in today? I am going to ask you to do a very scary thing. I am going to ask you to take a USB to every medical appointment and ask to get a copy of your record. I am asking you to do this even if the answer will be no. This may impact your life and friendships. This may effect your work and standing within society. Sometimes we need to stand against oppression. Sometimes we need to sit in our seat until the authorities take us away".
Rosa Parks / Marshall D. Rumbaugh / 1983 / Painted limewood / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution