Unfortunately, there have been countless research studies that have shown that in the United States, racial minorities, especially African Americans, receive poorer quality health care than their white counterparts (James, 2017). The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science concluded that, "physicians' unconscious negative stereotypes of African Americans, and perhaps other people of color, likely contribute to these health care disparities" (James, 2017 p.1). Not even an hour after completing my appointment at Foxhall Podiatry, I received an invitation to provide feedback on my visit. I decided to wait some time to provide this feedback because I didn't want my response to be affected by emotions. I have now been able to maturely reflect on my experience with Dr. Morse and provide scientific research to support why what I went through is real.
Just to give you some context, I'm a 32-year-old, healthy black male who recently decided to apply what I learned within my career in corporate America to enter the field of law. The only ailment I suffer from is a foot deformity that causes hard corns to develop on the soles of both feet. Now I have seen several board-certified podiatrists across the United States since I was a teenager and every single one of them informed me that the only way to stop the painful corns from forming, is to have surgery to correct the foot deformity. This surgery, which would require me to take 4-5 months off work, isn't an option for me living in this economy and with the student loan debt I have. So, with the help of these podiatrists over the years, I have developed a routine maintenance plan slow the growth of the corn cores. Besides my routine maintenance, I typically visit my podiatrist to remove the hard core of the corns about every six months. This has been a routine procedure for me and usually takes my podiatrist 10 minutes to do both feet. Having my podiatrist do this, gives me several months of much needed relief! My regular podiatrist was booked for months ahead, and I really needed some relief from the corns so I searched for a podiatrist that could possibly help sooner. I located Dr. Morse on Zocdoc, and he was literally the only podiatrist in the District of Columbia with appointments the week in which I was searching (I'm beginning to understand why now).
Dr. Morse was highly impersonal during the entire visit. I literally had to force conversation by asking him things such as, "How is your day thus far," and "Where are you from?" His cold demeanor made it seem like he did not want to engage with me at all. During my visit, I let Dr. Morse know that I wished to have the hard cores of the corns removed. It was at that point that Dr. Morse preceded to examine my foot and argue that no such corn existed. After going through this pretty much my entire life, Dr. Morse made me feel as if what I was saying was not valid and he also expressed low levels of empathy. I remained adamant which led to him requesting x-rays. Before the x-rays were performed, Dr. Morse placed markers where I said the painful, corn cores existed which are used by doctors to make the corn's location visible on the x-ray. Once the x-rays were completed, I asked Dr. Morse, "Did the x-ray show what I've been telling you that I indeed have two really painful corn cores?" Dr. Morse reluctantly replied, "It showed something." That was it. That was his response!
Dr. Morse began to exhibit frustration that what I had been telling him may have been the truth, so he reluctantly grabbed a scalpel and began shedding the dead skin from the soles of my feet. Even after knowing that the corns had hard cores, Dr. Morse still decided not to remove the cores of these corns. I know how it feels once that hard, painful core is removed from my past experiences, so I asked Dr. Morse did he remove them. Dr. Morse then replied, "I did." This was a flat out lie because I was still in pain after leaving Foxhall Podiatry. I also examined and I saw that the cores in which I'm used to identifying since I was a teenager, were still there.
Overall, I left my appointment feeling unheard and my medical concern still unresolved. I have heard stories of how the biases of white doctors negatively impact the quality of health care that Black Americans receive, but I have never personally experienced it until my visit with Dr. Morse. Do I believe Dr. Morse's was malicious in the way he made me feel as a patient, no I don't. As someone who studied Sigmund Freud's theories on the unconscious mind, I do believe it was Dr. Morse unconsciousness that led him to providing the subpar patient experience that he provided that day. read more
