Two cents about the Odessa Brown clinic

UPDATE additional article from Crosscut

Seattle Childrens Doctor forced to resign after allegations of racism reinvestigated

RantWoman's strongest association with the Odessa Brown clinic is the voices of relieved parents, usually mothers, on the bus and headed to the clinic for medical treatment. The voices are full of ease, appreciation. It makes RantWoman really sad both that housing costs and Metro service delivery force families to move to places where it is much harder to get to Odessa Brown and that there are so few other medical resources that take on all the challenges Odessa Brown works with.

This post is likely to be the limit of RantWoman's ventures into social media. Here are the two news stories RantWoman has seen.

 Crosscut article on Dr resigning

Seattle Times article

News that Dr. Ben Danielson has resigned from Odessa Brown arrived in RantWoman's inbox in close succession with news that the COVID positive test rates in parts of King County have reached 35% of those tested. Plus it's end of the year reflection time: The ravages of COVID among communities of color, the death of actor Chadwick Boseman long before his time of colon cancer, countless other data points cast in sharp relief the disparities in the US healthcare system. RantWoman hopes that the resignation of Dr. Ben Danielson from Odessa Brown will be just one part of intensively enhanced efforts to address inequities built into the US healthcare system.

RantWoman knows a couple of medical practitioners connected with the Odessa Brown Clinic and with Children's Hospital. RantWoman is likely to do the modern equivalent of people handing someone Ann Landers columns when they need to talk about a topic. In this case, it may be a link in an email and an invitation: "talk to me."

RantWoman particularly notes Dr. Danielson's concern about access to interpreters. RantWoman hopes this will be examined thoroughly and immediately addressed. This problem alone puts the clinic at risk of legal action based on title VI of the Civil Rights act. It is also bad medicine. Access to good interpretation services promotes both lower overall costs and better outcomes.

So Seattle, it's time for all of us to get busy doing our best to address Dr. Danielson's concerns!

And here is a link to a Change.org petition calling on Children's Hospital to address Dr. danielson's concerns