The growing number of shootings involving police is drawing hospital CEOs into the conversation on race relations.
In an essay Monday on Linkedin, Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson called for a national dialogue on race and rebuilding trust through community policing.
“This moment calls for unity, for listening, and for empathy as we seek to understand what communities of color are facing and the assumptions that the broader society is working from,” he wrote.
Tyson, who has previously written about his experiences as a black CEO, got personal by alluding to his three sons, whom he has schooled on how to conduct themselves should they be stopped by police.
“But is this acceptable in a 21st century America that was built on freedom of speech and justice for all?” Tyson asked.
Racial tensions and protests have roiled Baton Rouge, La., since July 5 when police officers shot Alton Sterling during an arrest.
Baton Rouge (La.) General Medical Center CEO Mark Slyter said chaplains and hospital managers have been making rounds with employees and patients for nearly two weeks now.
“A lot of the healing starts when people get an opportunity to meet and be heard,” Slyter said. “We are respectful of people's experiences and opinions.”
On Sunday, Slyter was on his way to a Louisiana Hospital Association meeting in Alabama when he received word that Baton Rouge police officers had been ambushed.
Baton Rouge General's Bluebonnet hospital campus received one of the three wounded officers. His condition is fair and his injuries are not life-threatening, the hospital said in a statement Monday. Three other officers were killed.
A little more than a week ago, after five Dallas police officers were killed, Dr. Brian H. Williams, a trauma surgeon at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, shared his thoughts with CNN.
The physician, who is black, admitted a fear and mild distrust in law enforcement that goes back to his own personal experiences.
"Clearly when I'm at work dressed in my white coat the reactions I get with individuals and the officers I deal with on a daily basis is much different to what I would get outside the hospital in regular clothes,” Williams said.
In his essay Monday, Kaiser Permanente CEO Tyson concluded with a plea for community policing.
“A police force that is seen as a paramilitary organization with an adversarial relationship with communities of color is neither effective nor what's needed to move our society forward,” he said.