Friday, April 24, 2009

Culture and Quality Part II

The idea of connecting cultural competency to quality is not one that is new. In fact, there are products and people who have been in this mode for a long time. For example Resources for Cross Cultural Health has hosted a conference entitled National Conference Series on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations, which they have hosted since 1998.

In addition there are people like Joe Betancourt, MD, MPH who was one of the principal authors of the IOM report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare published in 2002 who along with his colleagues and leading health disparities researchers, Emilio Carrillo, MD and Alexander Green, MD, MPH created the cultural competency educational tool, Quality Interactions. The name of this product, that teaches health professionals about cultural competency indicates that the creators aligned cultural competency with quality from the beginning of its creation. Thus, as leading researchers and thought leaders in the field they get that cultural competency goes hand in hand with quality healthcare.

So, the idea is not new. However, the idea of aligning quality with cultural competency is not commonly practices. It is not practiced in healthcare where one may consider it to be obvious since the bottom line of healthcare delivery is quality and efficacy. It is why we focus so much on evidence-based practice. Nonetheless, a conscious and consistent conversation aligning the concepts of cultural competency with that of quality has yet to come to light for the majority of healthcare organizations. more

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Kaiser Permanente CEO, George Halvorson's New Book

I saw on one of the blogs (Patient Centric Healthcare) I traverse, that the CEO at Kaiser Permanente is writing a book. I think fondly of Kaiser as a leader in cultural competency, diversity and inclusion. And want to make sure that if you are interested in what a great mind that works with several great minds, (i.e. Ron Knox, Melanie Tervalon, Edgar Quiroz), that IMHO knows the business of healthcare from many angles, and gets the connections between healthcare reform and the responsibilities of healthcare organizations towards both cause-oriented and quality-oriented approaches, pick up the book when it is released!

Upcoming Book By George Halvorson From Kaiser

Check out the blog post and interview.

Visit Diversity HealthWorks I will share the book and a link with members when I pick up my copy!

Make it a great day!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Convergence is Cool

There is not much to like about an economic recession. There is at least one thing: Innovation expands when other things are contracting. When you don't have a lot to work with you find ways to work more creatively with what you've got.

As I am preparing to write the second part in the series, Culture and Quality, it is amazing (even before April/Minority Health Month came upon us) how much health disparities are being discussed (more)

Monday, April 6, 2009

Will Giving Patients Knowledge of their Physician's Race Reduce Health Disparities?

The Kaiser Family Foundation website listed an article about the preliminary results of a telephonic study done by Highmark looking at patient preference for having race listed when they are choosing a physician (more)

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Culture and Quality Part I

For many candidates and employers/managers the question of "Where do you want to be in 5 years?" is a common one ask and responded to in interviews and performance reviews. In the work that we are doing to reform/transform healthcare, the idea of where we want/need/have to be in 5 years has been often coupled with the angst people feel about where we are and the past 5-10, 20+ years that has gotten us to where we are today.

I need not rehash the myriad dynamics that face us today. What I want to point out however, for us with a desire to create consistent and sustainable excellence in healthcare, is that we couldn't be in a better position to create something truly transformational. The question here is: Where do we need to go?

Why is the window of opportunity for transformation in healthcare wider now than we may have ever seen before? There are multiple reasons, I will name just a few: more