Philadelphia hospital apologizes for racial incident

Jet, Oct 20, 2003

A suburban Philadelphia hospital recently apologized for honoring a man's request that no Black employees assist in the delivery of his child.

Supervisors at Abington Memorial Hospital agreed to prevent Black staff members, including doctors and nurses, from entering a woman's hospital room in September at her husband's request. The decision violated a hospital policy stating that "employees will be assigned to patient services without regard to race, creed, color, national origin or religion of either the patient or employee," and violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Meg McGoldrick, the hospital's vice president, said the supervisors were trying to avoid a confrontation with the patient's husband, but were wrong to accommodate his wishes. Hospital President Richard L. Jones Jr. called the decision to honor the request "morally reprehensible."

The hospital released a statement that said 'leadership is focusing all of its energy and resources on an internal healing process." Additionally, hospital administrators apologized to employees, formed a diversity task force, arranged for cultural-sensitivity training and has revised hospital procedure to better handle such episodes, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. However, a hospital spokesperson would not say whether any disciplinary action would be taken.

In response to the incident, local NAACP leaders called a meeting with hospital officials at JET press time to seek punishment for those who violated the hospital anti-bias policy.