Resources

To truly eliminate health care disparities, key foundational practices must be consistently implemented.

We believe there are three major building blocks around which all practices focus.

Data Collection & Use - Increasing the collection of race, ethnicity and language preference data to facilitate its increased use.
Cultural Competency - Increasing cultural competency training for clinicians and support staff.
Diversity in Leadership - Increasing diversity in governance and management.

Below are free resources and best practices to help your organization incorporate these building blocks and create or refine practices.

Recent Research/Studies

The Enhanced National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (the National CLAS Standards) - are intended to advance health equity, improve quality, and help eliminate health care disparities by providing a blueprint for individuals and health and health care organizations to implement culturally and linguistically appropriate services. Adoption of these Standards will help advance better health and health care in the United States.
Journal of Healthcare Management: Increasing Diversity in Governance and Management - The March/April issue of the American College of Healthcare Executives’ Journal of Healthcare Management is the first in a series looking at factors that impact health care disparities. The first is by Thomas C. Dolan, PhD, FACHE, CAE, president and CEO of ACHE and looks at programs in place to promote diversity in governance and management.
The Role of the Chief Diversity Officer in Academic Health Center - A monograph detailing best practices, competencies and compensation data on CDOs. This was co-authored by AHA's Institute for Diversity in Health Management.
Diversity in Medical Education: Facts & Figures 2012 - This is the latest n a series of databooks which provides information on race and ethnicity and gender in medical education, as well as medical and health profession pipelines.
Awareness of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities— from The Office of Minority Health
The Income Divide in Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Help Restore Fairness to the U.S. Health System —from The Commonwealth Fund
Eliminating Health Care Disparities: Implementing the National Call to Action Using Lessons Learned— This guide looks at nine hospitals and health systems and summarizes each organization's key successes toward providing equity in care in one of the three areas: increasing the collection of race, ethnicity, and language preference data, increasing cultural competency training for clinicians and support staff, or increasing diversity in governance and management.
Caring for Vulnerable Populations — from the American Hospital Association’s Committee on Research
The committee examined emerging hospital-centered practices in effective care coordination for vulnerable populations, focusing the examples on the critical “dual eligible” population - individuals eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid.
Collection of Language Data and Services Provided by Health Plans in the American Journal of Managed Care.
The objective of this study was to describe health plan efforts to collect language data from its members, provide language services, and improve the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS).
Achieving Equity in Health —Health Affairs/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Brief Series
Ensuring Equity: A Post-Reform Framework to Achieve High Performance Health Care for Vulnerable Populations—The Commonwealth Fund

General Resources