Sign the Pledge!

Hospitals across America are working hard to advance quality and improve care for every patient. Understanding why different patient populations in a community may experience different results is a critical piece of the effort. And that’s at the core of our #123forEquity Pledge to Act Campaign to Eliminate Health Care Disparities. Equitable care for all patients is both the right thing to do and central to hospitals’ ongoing quality improvement work and part of a business imperative moving forward.  Pinpointing why disparities are occurring and eliminating them is difficult work.  But it should be a priority in every health care setting because every patient expects and deserves the highest level of care.  Hundreds of hospitals and health systems have signed the pledge to take specific actions to increase the collection and use of data on race, ethnicity and language preference as well as on cultural competency training and diversity in leadership and governance. Signers also commit to report on their progress promoting diversity. AHA is supporting these efforts with resources that include toolkits and best practices guidance. We’re making progress but there’s more to do. If your hospital has not already done so, please sign the pledge.