Racial Factors in Patient Selection

A previous study of 594 consecutive admissions to an outpatient clinic indicated that patients were being treated differently depending upon factors of race. The followup reported here showed that therapists with low ethnocentricity (as measured by the Bogardus Social Distance Scale) more often treated ethnic-minority patients in proportions comparable with Caucasian patients and that therapists with greater feelings of ethnocentricity less often saw minority-group patients in treatment lasting six or more visits.