Are metro Atlanta's hospitals racially inclusive? A new study has some interesting findings

ATLANTA - A new study shows Atlanta has some of the most racially inclusive hospitals in the country, while having one of the most racially segregated hospital markets in the country.   

And according to this study, that can impact people's life expectancy. 

"The idea really was if we understand the patterns…if we can make them visible, then we open up the pathway to improve access, to improve equity, improve the ability of our health care system to really take care of everybody who needs it," said President of the Lown Institute Vikas Saini.   

He says that’s the reason they put together this study of how racially inclusive hospitals and hospital markets are.

Saini says they used data from Medicare and its claims servers to compile the study.    

Both Grady Memorial and Emory University Hospital Midtown were ranked in the top ten most racially inclusive hospitals in the country. 

Grady was ranked 8th in the nation.

According to the study, 47% of people living in their service area are people of color, while 72% of their patients are people of color.  

At Emory Midtown, 42% of their service area comprises of people of color, while 65% of their patients are people of color.  

But the Atlanta metro area as a whole proved to be one of the most nation's most racially segregated hospital markets because it has hospitals on both ends of the spectrum. 

According to the study, 36% of Wellstar Kennestone Hospital’s service area is made up of people of color, but only 23% of the patients it serves are people of color.   

And for Northside Hospital Cherokee, the study finds that 21% of their service area is made up of people of color and yet only 10% of its patients are people of color.   

"It is a harsh set of facts that we've uncovered and spotlighted," Saini said. "When we looked at metro areas and we said, 'which metro areas have disproportionate numbers of hospitals in those two extremes?' We found a number of areas and those are the ones that we deemed to have much more kind of, segregated patterns of care."

Which includes Atlanta, it was ranked the 11th most segregated hospital market in the country.  

The problem with that Saini says, is when one of the hospitals that over serves the underserved populations shuts down those people lose access to that care. 

"It's a risk when one of them closes. It's also kind of how the systems currently designed to function, which is not good... it would be disruptive not only to that community that lost a hospital nearby, but It's also disruptive to care at all the other hospitals," Saini said. 

A good example of this he says is closure of Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center last year.  

The study also points out that in more segregated markets like Atlanta, minority groups tend to have a shorter life expectancy.  

Saini says there are some things hospitals can do right now though to be more inclusive.   

"They can decide where they're going to advertise, where they're going to make it easy to get there via transport. Lots of everyday decisions. Are they going to have translators available? Are they going to have more people that work there that kind of look like the community they're trying to reach?" Saini said. 

But he says hospitals can't do it all on their own. 

"There's a lot more that needs to be done that hospitals can't do by themselves, where they'd have to band together and join with civic leaders looking for changes in policy, particularly payment policy and other things," Saini said.   

 We reached out to all four hospitals mentioned in this story. 

We didn't hear back from Grady Memorial or Northside Hospital Cherokee in time for publication. 

Emory Healthcare told us in a statement it's "dedicated to providing the safest and highest quality health care to the diverse patients and families we are privileged to serve."

Wellstar told us in a statement, "Our long-standing dedication to serving diverse communities is a core part of our mission and is essential to our community benefit programs."

They also mentioned that in another Lown Institute report, the Top Hospitals for Fair Share Spending, Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center and Wellstar Cobb Medical Center were among the top 25 nonprofit hospitals in the nation.

They also said they "provide more uncompensated care than any other provider in Georgia -- totaling nearly $1 billion last fiscal year alone."