Try not to be poor, black, stuck in Harlem and sick

Cause Harlem Hospital might not take such good care of you:

Nearly 4,000 tests for heart disease performed over the last three years at Harlem Hospital Center — more than half of all such tests performed — were never read by doctors charged with making a diagnosis, hospital officials acknowledged Tuesday.

The echocardiogram tests, a type of ultrasound used to evaluate heart muscle and valve functions, were ordered by doctors at the hospital. The tests were stored on a computer and basically forgotten, officials said.

Nice. Pretty sure that wouldn't happen at Beth Israel.

It's typical of New York's ghettoes though. It's an old, long story where the poor, and particularly the black and Puerto Rican (Central Harlem, the area Harlem Hospital serves is definitely poor and black/Puerto Rican) have perpetually had the worst access to health care and the health care to which they do have access is subpar at best. It's really hard to feel that there isn't a racial neglect/institutional racism component to this.