Dear Sir/Madam:
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On August 4, 1995, the Reader published a front-page article written to extol the accomplishments of Dr. Robert Simon, the Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Cook County Hospital. The article also supported his contention that the use of emergency-room observation centers would reduce health-care expenditures nationally in a significant way. The article made some convincing arguments on both of these topics. Nonetheless, for reasons known only to Dr. Simon he used the Reader’s entree to the public to gratuitously disparage a substantial segment of the population, that is, the homeless. Dr. Simon, without any supporting data and in the face of well-known data regarding the composition of the homeless population, unfortunately chose to spotlight for all to see his personal prejudices and tendency to snap judgments without adequate understanding.
It is particularly destructive for the leader of a training program for young physicians at a public hospital supported by public funds to publicly espouse these views. The mission of a public hospital like Cook County Hospital is to serve all regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic status, etc. For a department chair, who is after all a role model, to suggest to his trainees that it is acceptable and appropriate for a physician to stereotype patients and make judgments with regard to which ones have earned the privilege to receive his or the hospital’s services is an embarrassment to the health providers and to the public who pays his salary. It does a disservice to the hundreds of trainees who come to Cook County Hospital, not only to learn technical skills, but hopefully also to inculcate values of tolerance, acceptance, empathy, and the potential they have for assisting patients in improving the quality of their lives.
Sami Al-Skaf, MD
