America’s Essential Hospitals always has been guided by a vision of equity in health and health care. The Black Lives Matter movement has prompted institutions across the nation to re-examine their organizational practices and policies to better understand how institutional racism impacts their work and to make changes that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Many hospital systems grapple with their role in combating the history of racism to promote equity. This new informational brief begins with a background on the impact of structural racism on patients, providers, and the community and a description of a workstream to combat structural racism for America’s Essential Hospitals and its members. It concludes with a description of twelve activities hospitals already perform to combat racism and three actions similar associations are undertaking.
The Role of Essential Hospitals in Combating Structural Racism: An Informational Brief