By Mary Jo Feldstein, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 17, 2007
When patients fail to take their medication, Dr. Corey Foster resists the temptation to immediately label them "non-compliant," physician-speak for patients who don''t follow doctors'' orders.
Foster, an internal medicine resident at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, delves deeper into patients'' lives, asking whether they struggled to afford the drugs or get to the pharmacy.
His inquisitiveness is built into his residency training. Foster is part of the Residents and Fellows Diversity Initiative at Barnes-Jewish. The program aims to increase diversity on the hospital''s campus and eliminate health disparities. Residents and fellows are selected for the program based on their commitment to promote diversity, mentor medical students and treat patients with limited access to medical care.
"I think we live in a world where people of different backgrounds, different ways of life are coming together more and more," said Dr. Arghavan Almony, an ophthalmology resident who was born in Iran and grew up in Colorado. "And, as physicians, you''re treating people from all walks of life."
The program, which grew to 26 residents this year from 19 last year, has helped Barnes-Jewish raise its percentage of underrepresented minority residents to 20 percent for the first time in the hospital''s history. Those residents come from eight different ethnic groups. Three of the residents are Caucasian, said Brenda Battle, director of the hospital''s Center for Diversity and Cultural Competence, which established the program.
Foster said having physicians from different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds can improve patient care.
"There''s a huge role for cultural competency and understanding in what we do," Foster said. Foster, who claims German, African-American and French Creole heritage, said families like seeing a face they can identify with, especially when they''re facing a serious diagnosis or the loss of a loved one.
"They think you will have some better understanding, some better insight into how they feel," Foster said.
While many of the residents in the program are from the United States and all are proficient in English, words can sometimes be misunderstood. Residents in the program ask patients to repeat instructions back to them, preventing miscommunications on both sides, Battle said.
The physicians also are encouraged to share with other doctors what they know about multiculturalism and what they learn from treating a diverse group of patients.
Residents and fellows are awarded grants each academic year from a pool of $200,000 established by the hospital''s foundation. The grant runs through the 2008 academic year.