Ending Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Disparities in American Health Care

Ending Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Disparities in American Health Care

When caregivers track care performance and care outcomes by race and ethnicity and then take steps to improve the care for each group where the data shows that care disparities exist, then those disparities can, in fact, be reduced or eliminated.

Kaiser Permanente took systematic steps to track care differences in HIV care between African American and White patients, for example, and managed to improve care for both sets of patients to achieve the lowest death rate in America for both sets of patients.

Disparities exist in our country — and they need to be addressed systematically or they will continue to exist.

Introduction

A major study of health care disparities that was done by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2003 pointed out both patterns of care and care outcomes that differed significantly from group to group. Some studies included in that report had data about care gaps among the groups that were so significant that they were hard to believe.

Chapter One

ENDING RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND CULTURAL DISPARITIES IN AMERICAN HEALTH CARE

Chapter Two

KAISER PERMANENTE SET CARE DISPARITY ELIMINATION GOALS

Chapter Three

HEALTH CARE AND HEALTH COVERAGE IS CHANGING

Chapter Four

LEARNING FROM A LONGSTANDING FOCUS ON ACCOUNTABLE CARE TO IMPROVE CARE FOR EVERYONE

Chapter Five

WE NEED THE RIGHT VALUES AND THE RIGHT TOOLS TO CREATE THE RIGHT CARE

Kaiser Awards

Endnotes