Resources

These tools offer insights into how others increased collaboration and equity.

Resource Collection

Inclusive leadership can spark powerful change by intentionally breaking down hierarchies to create connections across an organization’s staff, aligning diverse perspectives.

People in high-level leadership positions who value the contributions of all employees equally help build inclusivity and maintain relationships within the organization and its surrounding community.

Inclusive leaders acknowledge that every member of staff has meaningful perspectives and ideas to create leader-full organizations and reduce burnout. Working together, rather than having a leader who operates as a “solo hero,” promotes new opportunities to solve problems and advance health equity.

Being an inclusive leader means:

Sharing decisionmaking opportunities with staff to advance equity
Considering community feedback when creating organizational practices and policies
Valuing team perspectives and contributions as essential to maximizing impact

Linking payment structures to maternal health equity can improve maternal health outcomes. This brief provides information about the restructuring process.

Linking a health system’s payment structure to improvements in health equity marks a shift from traditional models focused solely on care processes and outcomes.

The brief explains how to:

Secure buy-in: From leadership and system providers by emphasizing long-term benefits
Create a solid foundation: By determining an organization’s definition of maternal health equity
Incorporating equity goals: Into all aspects of the organization’s work
Implement change: By deciding on specific payment structures and the metrics that govern them
Support providers: By ensuring they are funded appropriately to delivery necessary care
Monitor data: To hold the organization accountable to goals

Hospitals and healthcare organizations are uniquely positioned to help dismantle systemic racism by embedding equity and anti-racist practices into care delivery. A coalition focused on advancing equity, identified actionable strategies organizations can use to embed equity in their systems and practices.

The following strategies can support organization- wide efforts to advance and embed health equity into policies and procedures to improve health outcomes for all.

Develop an organization-wide strategy focused on health equity
- Ensure advocacy priorities, investments, and grant activities align with your organization’s commitment to equity
- Emphasize the importance of health equity in internal communications so all leaders are aligned with the organization’s strategy
Engage with the community your organization serves
- Ensure community needs are reflected by partnering with community organizations, and engaging with the community you serve throughout the planning and implementation stages
Remove barriers to care
- Ensure physical accessibility, transportation options, and culturally responsive services
Build an equitable workforce
- Diversify leadership and support employees through fair pay, strong benefits, and human resources practices that improve wellbeing
- Use the hospital’s procurements mechanisms to ensure diversity and fair treatment
- Use teaching programs to develop providers and future leaders to understand the importance of health equity, and how it leads to better outcomes
Create a culture of care
- Develop care plans that address a patient’s priorities
- Raise the standard of care beyond the initial visit to ensure a patient’s needs are identified and addressed.

Interviews with leaders from safety-net health systems unveil the power and potential of community-focused partnerships as one way to embed equity and address systemic racism in healthcare.

Despite serving diverse communities in need, many safety-net hospitals set their own care delivery standards and research priorities with no direct buy-in from those very communities. However, as many healthcare systems look to achieve greater health equity, that paradigm is shifting.

Through interviews with safety-net health system leaders, practical community partnership strategies emerge that can help provider networks be more accountable. Five considerations are identified as being key to shifting the balance of power toward the community:

Secure buy in from leadership
Include provider workforce in community partnership activities and organizational DEI activities
Consistently invite community feedback
Explore new styles of governance
Support the local economy through supply chain contracts

Sign up to receive The Intersection's newsletter and hear about upcoming events.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Name(Required)

First Last

Email(Required)

Company/Organization(Required)

CAPTCHA

Resources

These tools offer insights into how others increased collaboration and equity.

Recommended Readings

Resource Collection

Sign up for updates from The Intersection