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Engage in Equitable Health Care

Engage in equity as a health system by making care more accessible and reducing disparities through research, active listening, and collaboration with community partners.

Major Themes

  • Equitable, accessible health care delivery
  • Health equity research and education that informs practice
  • Minority and Women Business Enterprises

Key Milestones for FY2021

  • Assess barriers to access across the community
  • Increased data capture and accuracy for patients’ race and ethnicity
  • Anti-racism statement included in clinical research process (IRB)
  • Implement diversity and inclusion recruitment and retention best practices to increase BIPOC participants in clinical research

Objectives

  1. Ensure equitable, accessible health care delivery
    • Work with partners to assess and mitigate barriers to access across the community
    • Significantly increase data capture and accuracy for patients’ race and ethnicity in eRecord; use de-identified information as a tool to study and address health disparities
  2. Establish URMC as a national leader in health equity research and education
    • Enhance research and education related to health and health care equity that includes local and national/international investigators.
    • Ensure health equity research informs URMC senior leadership and URMC clinical quality improvement
    • Provide support to schools and clinical departments to implement health equity education
    • Work with community partners to identify and study our area’s top five health priorities and disparities; action plan to address learnings
  3. Increase use of Minority and Women Business Enterprises (MWBE)
    • Directory of local MWBE, including those who might not be able to meet official certification

Progress

In Progress

  • Extensive internal review of our clinical presence in the City of Rochester.
  • Increased activity with Community Partners to better serve city residents.
  • Have increased capability to track social determinants of health for patients in the electronic medical record.

 

Complete

  • Four critical working groups are actively identifying system opportunities to ensure—
    • healthcare equities
    • build community partnerships
    • lead the way with health equity research and education, specifically focusing on the impact of racism on health and translating our efforts into policy and action.
  • Proposal for Office of Health Equity Research.
  • Edith Williams, PhD, named Founding Director of the Office of Health Equity Research.
  • Telva Olivares, M.D., is now head of the Health Equity Steering Committee.