HEAL

We spoke with Leon D. Caldwell, AHA’s senior director for health equity strategies and innovation and one of the Health Equity Roadmap’s architects, about its importance to hospitals and health systems.

Across health systems, equity, diversity and inclusion may require varying degrees of resources based on a hospital’s leadership, staff resources, geography and demographics. Here are recommendations to engage the hospitals in your system.

Providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services is key to advancing health equity, improving patient safety and quality of care and eliminating health disparities. This literature overview provides a series of resources intended to guide and empower efforts to reach this critical milepost.

Now is the time to evaluate how far we have come in closing gaps in health disparities, assess where health care is on the equity journey and take what we’ve learned to strengthen our organizations and communities through collaborative and innovative work — by investing in our neighborhoods and one another.

Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of the Health Equity Roadmap — an innovative framework to support hospitals and health systems in their efforts to become more equitable organizations and dismantle structural barriers to health and overall well-being.

Action Planning is a critical step in collectively advancing equity and dismantling structural barriers (e.g., racism, sexism, ageism, etc.) in hospitals and health care systems. This Transformation Action Planner is for hospitals at Transforming on the Systematic and Shared Accountability continuum.

Action Planning is a critical step in collectively advancing equity and dismantling structural barriers (e.g., racism, sexism, ageism, etc.) in hospitals and health care systems. This Transformation Action Planner is for hospitals at Affirming on the Systematic and Shared Accountability continuum.

Action Planning is a critical step in collectively advancing equity and dismantling structural barriers (e.g., racism, sexism, ageism, etc.) in hospitals and health care systems. This Transformation Action Planner is for hospitals at Immersing on the Systematic and Shared Accountability continuum.

Action Planning is a critical step in collectively advancing equity and dismantling structural barriers (e.g., racism, sexism, ageism, etc.) in hospitals and health care systems. This Transformation Action Planner is for hospitals at Committing on the Systematic and Shared Accountability continuum.

Action Planning is a critical step in collectively advancing equity and dismantling structural barriers (e.g., racism, sexism, ageism, etc.) in hospitals and health care systems. This Transformation Action Planner is for hospitals at Exploring on the Systematic and Shared Accountability continuum.

This blog offers guidance on how to get staff to get more involved in and discuss issues related to DEI. The blog focuses on creating employee resource groups, how to encourage and support them, and how to get them involved in internal DEI work.

In this article, diversity, equity and inclusion consultants Stephen Graves and Alex Bethel share insights on how White healthcare professionals can move beyond White fragility and harness their racial privilege to create health equity.

The REPAIR Project is a three-year initiative designed to address Anti-Black Racism in science and medicine. It recognizes that long-standing racial inequities in health, health care institutions and scholarship are a result of systemic race-based violence and racism in society as a whole, and seeks to open conversation and promote efforts to rectify and eliminate these problems.

This article looks at DEI efforts and how they can, if not carefully implemented, look solely like hiring initiatives. ERGs provide space for employees to feel like they belong. The article emphasizes formal organizational support where leaders approve group charters and agree on common themes.

This article outlines the benefits of ERGs while identifying ways for institutions to support involved staff, both internally and publicly, who are primarily volunteers. Black employees who are part of ERGs may feel burnt out and this article focuses on their involvement in ERGs and ways their companies can support them. ERGs develop internal leaders while benefitting the overall growth of the company. Ensuring ERG members are respected and given the time and space to complete this additional work separate from their full time job, have mental health support, and enough funding to allow for them to involve the rest of staff in learning will put less stress on ERG members.

This is a comprehensive example of a Hospital's Action Plan providing recordings, handouts, and the plan itself. An action plan with a focus on DEI results in a an organization dedicated to the goals of fostering a more equitable workplace. A finalized action plan results in goals to move forward in practice, in one case committing to employee-led resource groups.

This article takes a look at accountability and how to begin to establish it at varying levels of an organization.

Health care organizations are on the front lines of addressing health equity, playing key roles in not only access and care delivery, but also as employers and as community members. Discover strategies for organizations to address health equity within their organizations and the communities they serve.

This article looks at DEI and how it is valued or unvalued in organizations. It is more common for employees who are attempting to do DEI work to be penalized or disregarded. The article offers a the "MERIT" framework to guide leaders in making their employees feel valued to do the work for DEI.

This pamphlet is an example of an active DEI initiative at a health organization.

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.

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.

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.