I’ve been in equity conversations for decades, and now is an exciting time. Here’s a glimpse into some of what I’ve been hearing and seeing, that I first shared in October, that we’re continuing to watch and work on at HCP.
Systems-level efforts are key
First on this list is systems level efforts for Equity as being key. I’ve been to a couple events recently from different organizations, and a take away that they’ve had in common is this: connect equity goals to your strategic plan. We understand the moral and ethical imperative of equity work. And we also know there’s a business case to be made. So we need to keep making that case. And one of the ways of doing that is to tie it to your strategic plan.
We also want to keep our eye on leadership here, because right now that’s important. If you’re in healthcare you’ve noticed that some hospitals have added Equity Officer positions. It’s a minority of hospitals right now, but according to one study that number is expected to rise. Corporate has taken a hit over 2023 in terms of the DEI officers, but we’re watching that space and strategizing ways to support leaders who are being asked to do more with less.
Across sectors, the organizational goal I’m hearing again and again is making equity part of business as usual.
This is systems-level thinking. And at least from my perspective, it’s going to take systems-level work, as well as individual-level work. There are ways to do this. There are ways to connect Equity goes to your strategic plan. One way that we’re helping organizations is thinking about communication as a strategic lever. Because no matter your role, communication is involved. So I’ll invite you to think about how more equitable communication can be a strategic lever for action.
Enhance cultural competency of providers and staff
“Educators could really benefit from this. Quality improvement folks, too. Anyone trying to change policy or develop infrastructure.”
Equity and Quality Improvement
Tying Equity to Quality is not a new idea. In the health sector, institutions have been trying to address the quality gap for years. I was recently at a National Academy of Medicine workshop and some of the presenters suggested that the connections between equity and quality have gotten more attention lately because of new requirements and standards, from NCQA, The Joint Commission, and CMS adopting the hospital commitment to Health Equity measure. So this large-scale attention and action is new, although the core concept is not.
So there are some challenges to be expected. A recent study on equity and Healthcare quality measurement, which I’ll link to, says “most existing quality measurement efforts do not explicitly target or incentivize Health Equity despite Equity being a key component of quality.” So again this is evolving, and we’re going to keep monitoring this space.
In the meantime, if your quality improvement efforts include patient education, we can help. Our hybrid course, Equitable Patient Education, is a specific tangible action your team can take part of as part of your action plan.
Equity and the Workplace
I’ve written about this before, and you may have heard me podcast about this a little bit in the past. I did an episode on the Surgeon General’s Workplace Wellness Framework.
But right now, these days, I am thinking about culture.
No one’s has illusions about how hard it is to change organizational culture. The study on Chief Equity Officers found that changing the culture was one of the items that the least amount of people felt well prepared to do. Communication is part of culture in many ways. So when we want to create a culture of inclusion that works for all of us, and not just for some of us, you can bet communication is involved.
A few years ago when people found out that I was helping health professionals communicate better with patients from different social and cultural backgrounds, they began to ask, “Can you help us with this in our workplace culture?” So this is one topic at HCP we’ve been involved with in different ways over the years. Hospitals are workplaces too!
This trend shows no signs of slowing, because any organization that wants to be competitive wants to cultivate an equitable workplace culture, and keep their people. So if you’d like help with this, let me know. You can message me on linked or visit Health Communication Partners and hit contact.
Equity and Research
I was talking recently with a grad school classmate who is also an organizational leader, and she said, “We never really take our researcher hats off.” Like my classmate, I’ve been researching the connections between equity and communication for decades. And that includes equity within research. Now, many people are looking at this from many different perspectives. Researchers have been asking, what can we do to change inequities in research, and this includes who does research, as much as how people are represented in research, and how people are involved in research at all stages.
We’re talking about moving from research on to research for and further to research with.
This involves changing mindsets. We’re confronting deep history. We’re trying to understand systematic issues in research. I have a prior episode on who gets to do health equity research. This is layered work that takes intentionality, but as researchers, we can do this.
Those are four of our priorities at Health Communication Partners. I would love to hear about yours. You can message me on linked or visit Health Communication Partners and hit contact.
