The Joint Commission issues new Sentinel Event Alert on healthcare disparities

Editor's Note

The Joint Commission, on November 10, released a new Sentinel Event Alert, Issue 64: “Addressing healthcare disparities by improving quality and safety.”

The Alert summarizes strategies for healthcare and human services organizations as they begin to address healthcare disparities, and it provides examples of successful initiatives already underway.

The Joint Commission quotes the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation’s definition of healthcare disparities, which is: “differences between groups in health coverage, access to care, and quality of care.”

Though these disparities are commonly viewed through the lens of race and ethnicity, The Joint Commission notes, they can occur across many dimensions—socioeconomic and/or disability status, age, location, gender, and sexual orientation and expression.