Joint Commission issues Quick Safety on diversity

Editor's Note

The Joint Commission, on July 13, issued a new “Quick Safety Issue 60: Understanding the needs of diverse populations in your community.”

To address the health and well-being of diverse populations in US communities, hospitals and medical centers can use the following safety actions and strategies:

• Requiring leadership to make equity a strategic priority within their institutions and beyond the hospital walls, which requires leaders to leverage policies and practices that embrace anti-racism.
• Using a social intervention framework, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Accountable Health Communities model, to help identify patient population needs.
• Creating a strategic plan for community outreach beginning with understanding the organization’s culture, mission, vision, and values.
• Supporting the local workforce by hiring entry level position people from their communities and providing advancement and professional development opportunities.

The Joint Commission notes that hospitals and academic medical centers have an economic and moral interest in helping to make surrounding communities safe, vibrant, healthy, and stable.