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Cedars-Sinai, federal agency announce agreement on maternal care – Jobsmaa.com

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Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has reached an agreement with the government to resolve allegations that it violated federal anti-discrimination laws when treating pregnant black, Latino and other patients of color, officials said Thursday.

The agreement with the U.S. Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights comes after two months for the agency Cedars-Sinai said Its investigation raises concerns that “black patients are receiving lower quality care compared to their white counterparts – particularly leading up to and during obstetric bleeding”.

However, in that November letter, the agency said it had not reached any final decision about whether Cedars-Sinai violated federal anti-discrimination laws.

In a statement Thursday, the HHS Office for Civil Rights said it “did not determine a violation of federal law” by the medical center. An agency official said it had not reached a conclusion.

under Voluntary AgreementCedars-Sinai will take steps aimed at improving outcomes for pregnant patients, including developing a reporting tool to document suspected dependency incidents and sharing its findings, facilitating access to doulas during labor and providing information about its alert systems to ensure timely delivery. Diagnosis and treatment of acute illnesses in pregnant patients.

He said the Office for Civil Rights will monitor the settlement agreement for three years. The agency reserves the right to reopen its investigation if Cedars-Sinai fails to comply with the agreement.

Prior to its review, Cedars-Sinai made “substantial efforts to understand and mitigate the effects of discrimination and prejudice in health care,” the agency said. A Cedars-Sinai spokeswoman added that it developed programs to improve outcomes for pregnant patients and worked closely with community partners to reduce racial disparities.

Melanie Fontes Reiner, the office's director, called the deal “the first of its kind” for HHS. “We think the progress, the policies, the changes that are being made in this agreement are very advanced, in terms of what steps we need to take to ensure that black and brown women do not disproportionately die in hospitals or face discrimination and discrimination in our hospital systems,” she said Thursday.

Cedars-Sinai Chief Health Equity Officer Dr. Christina Harris said in a statement released by the federal agency that Cedars-Sinai “welcomes the opportunity to partner with OCR, reinforcing our longstanding commitment to providing equity to all who trust us in their care.”

A federal review began two and a half years ago after public outcry and lawsuits over the death of Kira Dixon Johnson, a black woman who bled to death after a cesarean section at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Her husband, Charles Johnson, reached settlements after suing Cedars-Sinai and the doctors, but the widow continued to push for change, founding the advocacy group 4Kira4Moms to prevent maternal deaths. Inequality faced by black women. In California, the maternal mortality rate for black patients is three times higher than for white patients. State data show.

“If we're going to stop more women of color from dying, there has to be something more than a federal contract,” said Nicholas Rowley, an attorney representing Johnson. For example, she complained that the provision in the contract around warning systems required only a written summary and overview and was “silent on black and brown women.”

Earlier this week, Johnson and other advocates publicly called on Cedars-Sinai to acknowledge its “systemic failures in maternal health and health equity,” establish an independent oversight panel to investigate racial disparities in care, and immediately suspend any doctors. Discrimination or indifference, inter alia demands.

If those demands are not met, Johnson said they will protest outside the hospital in February. After the deal was announced, the widow called it a “first step” but “not nearly enough.”

“For us, the collaboration and accountability with the community is largely missing,” he said.

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