Governor Gretchen Whitmer has issued an executive directive for the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs to begin developing requirements for implicit bias training for those seeking licenses as medical professionals in Michigan. Speaking at a Thursday conference, Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist said Black Michiganders have been hit extra hard by COVID-19, exposing racial disparities in the healthcare system. He said Michigan will lead the way in righting them.
“We are one of the first, and sadly remain, one of the few states that does report out our cases and deaths by race and ethnicity,” Gilchrist said. “That is in part because our state understands and recognizes the need to make informed decisions driven by the best data and information.”
Gilchrist said healthcare professionals should be trained to better recognize signs of COVID in patients of color.
“We have an opportunity, those of us who are living and working and leading today, we have the opportunity to be that different set of people that makes a different set of choices and establish a new set of systems and a different framework and a different paradigm, that can lead to a different set of more equitable outcomes.”
The National Healthcare Disparities Report concluded that white patients received care of a higher quality than Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and Asian American patients. Gilchrist said current leaders can work to improve racial equity in healthcare in the name of those who have lost their lives during the pandemic.
