14A
NEWS/The Charlotte Posf
Thursday, April 3, 1997
Doctors to fight exclusion
Continued from page 1A
who is considering legislation
that might require the hospital
to insure the African American
community retains access to
Carblinas Medical’s facility or
cut its state funding.
“They (hospital officials) were
going to come back with some
kind of compromise,” Williams
said. “They said were going to
look at it and let us know what
they planned to do about it.”
Carolinas Medical is a quasi
public entity to which local gov
ernment appoints members of
its board of directors. The
Carolinas Healthcare System is
a public, not-for-profit entity
established under the N.C.
Hospital Authorities Act. It is
not owned or operated by the
city or county.
Carolinas Medical considers
the contract a “business deci
sion,” similar to its contracts
with such health professionals
as pathologists and anesthesiol
ogists.
Aluko thinks the issue goes
beyond business.
In a letter to dated March 11,
Carolinas Medical president
Paul Franz argued that Aluko
has not been denied privileges
at the hospital, just the use of
its Cardiac Catherization Lab.
“He and his colleagues at Mid-
Carolina also have use of the
excellent Cardiac Catherization
Lab we own at Mercy Hospital,
located just across the street
from his office,” Franz said.
He noted that the Sanger
Clinic treats more African
American patients than Mid
Carolina.
“We are offended by any hint
of racial discrimination,” Franz
said. “We do not tolerate such
practices, are appalled by any
suggestion that such actions
may occur here, and think it
noteworthy that Dr. Aluko’s
legal case does not have in it
any reference to racial or eco
nomic discrimination.”
WiUiams said he is concerned
that the Afncan American com
munity is not properly served by
the exclusive contract with the
Sanger Clinic.
“Excluding five black physi
cians from doing business at
Carolinas Medical removefe five
physicians in the Charlotte
Medical Society,” Aluko said.
“The hospital gets state and fed
eral funds. The racial impact
has not been looked at.
Eighty percent of black cardi
ologists are excluded from doing
business in the hospital.”
“If African American physi
cians wanted to refer patients to
African American cardiologists,
that choice is limited,” Aluko
said.
Cardiac ailments are especial
ly of concern to African
Americans.
“There is a disproportionate
representation of diseased
deaths m the African American
community compared to the
white community,” Aluko said.
“Part of the reason is the inade
quate access to black physi
cians.
“The hospital has behttled the
problem of heart disease in the
African American community
and demonstrated insensitivity
in removing access of black
patients to black physicians.”
Williams said he’s concerned
about Carolinas Medical’s
actions in the black community,
for example, its dealings with
C.W. Williams Health Center.
“It is easy to be insensitive
without realizing they are
insensitive,” Williams said, not
ing what he called a shortage of
Afncan Americans in the hospi
tal’s upper level management.
Williams said one of his con
cerns has been the hospital’s
lack of support for the C.W.
WiUiams. “They have been try
ing to force them out...taking
patients C.W. Williams has
worked with for a long time,”
Williams said. “That’s a concern
I have had for a long time.”
Carolinas Medical is partners
in a health maintenance organi
zation which is building three
medical clinics in the black com
munity, including one at Five
Points near Johnson C. Smith
University and one in the bus
transfer center in uptown
Charlotte.
Those centers will compete
with black doctors, who are
often excluded from participa
tion in health maintenance
organizations.
Excluding African American
cardiologists from the Carolinas
Medical lab further limits access
of black doctors and their
patients, WiUiams said.
“Someone said slavery was a
business decision,” Williams
said. “Sometimes business deci
sions negatively impact on cer
tain groups of people.”
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