‘Kick Non-Woke Patients to the Curb’? Mass General Brigham Speech Code Includes Blacklist on Care

A wealthy Massachusetts healthcare system that went on a controversial advertising spree to justify its encroachment on cheaper hospitals is now sending patients a different message: Watch your language.

“Words or actions that are disrespectful, racist, discriminatory, hostile, or harassing are not welcome” at Mass General Brigham (MGB), according to a “Patient Code of Conduct” imposed this fall after a year of development.

The Oct. 6 video for the update, featuring Senior Medical Director for Health Equity Allison Bryant, says it applies to further constituencies: “Patient, Family, Visitor, and Research Participant Code of Conduct.”

The code covers not only “physical or verbal threats and assaults” and “sexual or vulgar words or actions,” but also “offensive comments about others’ race, accent, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or other personal traits” or refusal to see staff based on those traits. It frowns on “unwelcome words or actions” as well.

While patients can give their side when accused of violating the code, MGB warns that it may ask them to “make other plans for their care” in response to some violations. They might also be banned from “future non-emergency care … though we expect this to be rare.”

MGB emphasizes that “many healthcare systems across the country have similar codes of conduct” but didn’t cite any. {snip}

An advocacy group that fights “woke activists” in medicine warned this month that the code’s failure to define its terms or explain who decides violations raises the likelihood that MGB will “kick non-woke patients to the curb.”

Failure to use preferred pronouns could constitute “harassment,” disputing the existence of systemic racism could be deemed “racist,” and favoring equal access to care over equity could be labeled “discriminatory,” according to Do No Harm.

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Do No Harm noted that one of MGB’s founding members and Harvard Med’s training hospital, Brigham and Women’s, launched a pilot last year that explicitly granted “preferential care based on race” to redress past wrongs, even while acknowledging it might be illegal.

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