national research corporation

Apr 13, 2022

04/13/2022 | 10:25am EDT Message : ~Shanne Keeny, MISM, CPXP, Director, Patient and Guest Experience, Penn State Health Dr. Hyma Polimera grew up in India dreaming of becoming a physician, and in 2008, she made her dream come true. She became a physician and eventually moved to the United States and started working at Penn State Health in 2014. In 2016, she met a patient who had multiple chronic conditions, including dementia. She met with the caregiver and a power of attorney. And when she introduced herself, the caregiver immediately asked for a change of physician. Dr. Polimera suspected she knew why they were asking for a physician change, but she still asked the question. And even though she felt like she'd known what the response would be, she said she still felt blindsided when the caregiver said, "I'd like an American doctor." Dr. Polimera took that experience to her supervisor and submitted a change-of-physician request form. Dr. Brian McGillen was the supervisor of hospitalists at the time. He first talked to Dr. Polimera and asked her if she was comfortable caring for that patient, even though they'd asked for an American physician. She said yes. McGillen knew that Polimera was highly qualified to care for the patient. So he went back to the patient and their family and said, "Your request for a physician change is denied. We will not honor a change request based on bias or discrimination." That set a precedent for future diversity, equity, and inclusion work at Penn State Health, explained Shanne Keeny, MISM, CPXP, the organization's Director of Patient and Guest Experience. Today, Penn State Health has an anti-bias policy that follows those same guidelines, which explain that they will not honor a request for change of any staff-not just physicians-based on bias or discriminatory thoughts or actions. Conversely, its expectation of mutual respect is shown in Penn State Health's vision to deliver excellent care, combining the most advanced and innovative techniques in medicine with compassionate and culturally responsive service for patients, families, and communities. "We've purposely called this a journey, because I don't think that there's a time that we're ever going to stop talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion," Keeny says. "And sometimes we think that we've been working at this for a long time, and then other days I come into work and I think, Boy, we really just got started." Click here to view Penn State Health's whole presentation from the NRC Health 2022 Pediatric Conference. Attachments