The research led us down a few different paths of what we could do for our intervention. We could’ve shown what a potential utopian hospital would look like and how to get people to push for such a reality by voting for the change they want to see, but we realized very quickly that getting people to get in touch with their city officials would be a lot harder than just providing them with the information. Our next thought was to take healthcare experiences from the participants and hand them over to the people in-charge ourselves but that strayed from our goal of showing people the inequality that already exists within the healthcare system. Our final solution to show what healthcare inequalities look like came in the form of a skit and the results were a lot better than we had hoped for.

Our hope was to engage the public enough to at least hand out our pamphlet as it contains the key bits of information from our research and helplines for Medicaid and reporting the inequalities. Our skit was planned around making a spectacle and getting the attention of people walking by or leaving the park behind us.

On the day of our performance our main goal was to engage a handful of people that wanted to learn more of the inequalities that exist within their own neighborhood. Our skit drew in a few passers by but Lamonte, the civilian that had first hand experience of the inequality we were talking about, sharing his story drew in even more. Our spectacle lead to a real experience being shared and that led to even more people stopping and learning about healthcare disparities and how they can help should they choose to.

The script

Roles:

Rich – Isaiah

Poor – Mukhammadmurod

Doctor – Julissa

Receptionist – Brenda

Narrator – Naeem

The Skit:

The poor patient enters with significant injuries followed by the rich patient with no injury but a cough.

Receptionist: hello How can I help you today? 

Poor patient: yes, I would like to see the doctor.

Receptionist: of course, we’d be happy to help you out if you could go ahead and fill out these papers. 

Poor patient: ma’am I’m bleeding, it’s an emerg…

-He gets cut off by the rich patient.

Rich patient: hi, I have had this cough for the last hour and I was passing the hospital. I would like to see the doctor now.

Receptionist points the rich patient toward the doctor’s room.

Rich patient walks to the doctor

The poor patient starts yelling: how come he gets to see the doctor without an emergency. You didn’t even ask for his insurance information.

Receptionist: Sir, he’s an important man. He doesn’t have time for filling out forms.

Poor patient: oh, and an injured, bleeding person does?

Receptionist: considering the doctor is currently busy, yes, yes he does. 

Poor patient begrudgingly starts to fill out the paperwork.

The doctor and rich patient walk out smiling and/or laughing. 

Doctor: you are all set, Mr. Cardinal. See you in six months. 

Rich Patient: thank you dr. …

Rich patient walks past the poor patient who looks at him in anger.

Poor patient stands up, and after exerting himself quite a bit, he walks over to the receptionist.

Poor Patient: alright, can I see the doctor now?

Receptionist: let me check. -Looks towards the doctor and motions for her to come here-

Receptionist: there’s one patient left

Doctor -to patient-: sorry sir, but we’re done for the day and will be closing now. You can come back first thing in the morning.

Poor patient looks dumbfounded and starts yelling: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I’VE BEEN WAITING AND BLEEDING ON THIS FLOOR TO GET SEEN BY A DOCTOR AND THIS IS WHAT I WAITED FOR? JUST TO BE SENT BACK OUT WITHOUT ANY TREATMENT?