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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This blog post offers an overview on how to assess your organization's DEI understanding so they can make a plan to move forward in the work. This organization also links to multiple resources on DEI training, including webinars, a resource library, and success stories.

This article presents challenges and offer recommendations for facilitating the process of eliminating health disparities and achieving health equity across diverse populations.

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 Culturally Appropriate Patient Care 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 Culturally Appropriate Patient Care 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 Culturally Appropriate Patient Care 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 Culturally Appropriate Patient Care 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 Culturally Appropriate Patient Care continuum.

This toolkit focuses on training and education strategies and approaches to encourage cultural humility and overcome implicit bias.

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.

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.

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.