HEAL

This toolkit distills the elements of the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (National CLAS Standards) framework and is intended to help guide the efforts of HCOs to evaluate the implementation of the National CLAS Standards across four settings: ambulatory care, behavioral health, hospitals, and public health.

Social determinants of health – where we live, work and play – have tremendous affect on one’s health, and they can affect anyone, regardless of age, race, ethnicity.  Help your organization and community better understand how social determinants impact your patients and neighbors as well as what hospitals are doing to address this important aspect of health, and what resources AHA has to help you further tackle related challenges including food insecurity and lack of transportation.

The AHA Task Force on Ensuring Access in Vulnerable Communities examined ways in which the access to and delivery of care could be improved. During that process, the Task Force grappled with the reality that, in vulnerable communities, even if quality care is available, social determinants often prevent individuals from being able to access health care or achieve health goals.

Reliance on digital tools can exacerbate barriers to care among certain populations and may be less accessible to people with limited English proficiency. As these technologies become ubiquitous, now is the time to examine digital health from an equity lens to ensure that no community is left behind.

Many of the digital solutions we relied on during the pandemic will remain, making digital health equity, including digital access and literacy, even more important. As hospitals and health systems design and implement digital solutions, it will be imperative to take proactive steps so all individuals have the opportunity to engage with these tools.

To support hospitals and health systems starting from different points on their journey to strengthen health equity, the AHA’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity (IFDHE) is preparing four new guidance and resource toolkits to share evidence-based practices to inform organizational next steps. Look for additional IFDHE toolkits to be released throughout 2021.

Inequities in health care are widely noted, yielding poorer quality of care and reduced patient safety, and increased costs. The economic burden of racial health inequalities in the United States is estimated to be $230 billion dollars. Identifying disparities in health care and effectively intervening to mitigate the effect of these gaps is key to attainting a society of healthy communities, where all individuals reach their highest potential for health. Hospital and health systems may utilize a dashboard to provide health care leaders with the necessary information on their journey to advance health equity, diversity and inclusion. A basic level health equity, diversity and inclusion dashboard may include measures to model the American Hospital Association 123forEquity Pledge to include the following: race, ethnicity and language preference data collection, stratification and use, cultural competency training, diversity and inclusion in governance and leadership, and community partnerships.

This toolkit aims to help hospitals and health systems facilitate sensitive conversations with patients about their nonmedical needs that may be a barrier to good health.

Diversity, inclusion, cultural humility and health equity are imperative for health care organizations, as the U.S. demographic landscape continues to change and regulatory agencies continue to implement requirements to improve safety and quality, reduce health care disparities and create more affordable care for patients. This certificate program works to train leaders who can build a more robust diversity strategy in their health care community.

The AHA's Physician Alliance has developed resources to help clinicians address social determinants of health within a framework that maximizes their skills while helping organizations systematically approach these challenges.

This toolkit provides checklists to assess the organization's diversity (inclusing leadership), workforce diversity, and patient care while providing action steps to move toward being a more diverse organization. The toolkit also provides case studies of various hospitals who took initatives toward becoming more diverse and their outcomes.