HEAL

AHA presents a framework to support hospitals and health systems and actions they can take at each level (structural, community, personal) to improve health equity. Numerous studies have demonstrated a link between the social determinants of health and key health outcomes. AHA has worked to promote widespread use of ICD-10-CM codes that enable provider to collect data on the social determinants of health.

Dr. Leon D. Caldwell, Senior Director, Health Equity Strategies and Innovation, in the Institute of Diversity and Health Equity at the AHA, sits down with Dr. James Min, CEO and Co-founder of AHA Associate, Cleerly, as well as Dr. Richard Chazal, Senior Cardiologist and Medical Director of the Heart & Vascular Institute at Lee Health System.

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.

In the 2021 Annual Disability Equality Index (DEI) findings, we share the tangible ways participating companies are bringing people with disabilities into this new economy to drive inclusion and equality. The results from this report index indicate more business across industries each year view the DEI as a valuable tool.

The role of the physical environment in communication between health-care professionals and persons with communication problems is a neglected area. This study provides an overview of factors in the physical environment that play a role in communication during conversations between people who are communication vulnerable and health-care professionals.

This article looks at how places like hospitals and health care centers, where mobility and accessibility should be a primary goal, are lacking. It provides some background on disability environments and the adjustments made by the time of publication. It also looks at physical access to health care facilities and access to information for people with multiple cognitive disabilities.

This article offers a much needed path to equity in healthcare. It amplifies the fact that measured data allows for dedicated improvements and changes to occur and engaging communities and obtaining their feedback and needs is integral to implementing effective, lasting change.

Unequal Treatment offers recommendations for improvements in medical care financing, allocation of care, availability of language translation, community-based care, and other arenas. The committee highlights the potential of cross-cultural education to improve provider-patient communication and offers a detailed look at how to integrate cross-cultural learning within the health professions. The book concludes with recommendations for data collection and research initiatives.

This white paper provides guidance on how health care organizations can reduce health disparities related to racial or ethnic group; religion; socioeconomic status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory, or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion.

This toolkit offers various forms of media and tools that highlight community perspectives on issues and where the AAMC Center for Health Justice's members can improve based on these community insights.

The authors conducted a literature review of academic, foundation, and government publications focusing on sociocultural barriers to care, the level of the health care system at which a given barrier occurs, and cultural competence efforts that address these barriers. A framework of organizational, structural, and clinical cultural competence interventions can facilitate the elimination of these disparities and improve care for all Americans.

This field report looks at culturally competent care, the benefits and needs, and case studies. The case studies offer recommendations and analysis.

This resource analyzes and lists ADA compliance laws in relation to healthcare centers. They touch on reducing financial barriers to make these accesibility changes and increasing awareness for providers through training.

This website offers a resource library to explore resources on quality and equity in patient care, particularly disparities in leadership, structural equity and equity in quality of health care.

This online resource is dedicated to treating patients from different cultures. It provides information on various cultures, providing basic history, information on religion, health practices, and experiences with Western medicine.

This essay was developed by Crossroads to assist Anti-Racism Teams confront internalized racist oppression and internalized racist superiority.

An adaptable group training that focuses on ways to intervene in public instances on racist, anti-Black, anti-Muslim, anti-Trans, and other forms of oppressive interpersonal interaction. The training provides scenarios to practice through discussions or role-plays. Developed by the People’s Response Team in Chicago, that focuses on supporting families impacted by police brutality.

A 2-page document that provides strategies on how to challenge everyday explicit and implicit biases in interpersonal interactions. Strategies include using humor, asking questions, inviting discussion, and using direct communication among others and provides some examples on how to carry these out.

This resource provide simple practices that health professionals can incorporate to develop skills around speaking respectfully about disability.

The purpose of this tool is to ensure equity by creating a lens through which each Healthy King County Coalition Workgroup better understands who is impacted by our policies and practices.

The guide is designed to: provide the strategies suggested by meeting participants and offer new ones to integrate and advance care that is family-centered and culturally and linguistically competent; and assist organizations and systems in meeting the MCHB performance measures for family-professional partnerships and cultural competence. The guide is intended for use by a diverse array of stakeholders and constituencies in the integrated system of services for children and youth with special health care needs and their families.