On Nov. 10, The Joint Commission announced that it had issued a Sentinel Event Alert [a complimentary publication of The Joint Commission], “Addressing health care disparities by improving quality and safety.”
The press release on the alert states that “The alert helps guide healthcare organizations to position disparities as a central part of performance and patient safety improvement.”
Further, “Healthcare disparities are a critical patient safety and quality issue. Non-Hispanic Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. The COVID-19 pandemic has further widened disparity gaps as non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics with COVID-19 have experienced nearly three times the rate of hospitalization as whites.”
The alert provides recommended actions healthcare organizations can take to address disparities and identify opportunities for improvement, including:
- Collect and classify quality and safety performance data specific to the communities the healthcare organization serves
- Develop communication channels to promote listening and learning
- Analyze classified data and community feedback to identify healthcare disparities and opportunities for improvement
- Pledge to achieving diversity and inclusion as an important step toward addressing healthcare disparities
- Embark on initiatives to rectify healthcare disparities by building sustainable business models
“The alert outlines related Joint Commission requirements and provides a list of references and resources for further information about successful practices in addressing health care disparities,” the release adds.
Ana Pujols McKee, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer, chief diversity and inclusion officer at The Joint Commission was quoted in the release saying that “The Joint Commission is committed to safe, high-quality health care for all. Addressing healthcare disparities is a top priority for The Joint Commission. Our mission to continuously improve health care commits us to working with health care organizations and other stakeholders to find effective solutions to the inequities that unfortunately have been tolerated in health care much too long.”
