Also, they should compromise sub-themes such as attending to root causes of health inequalities and disparities, addressing issues that affect susceptible groups, promoting equal opportunities for all people to guarantee improved quality of life, and fair distribution of socioeconomic resources to promote healthy living.
Organizational cultures are consistent with patient safety, coordination, and patient-centered care. According to Lavizzo-Mourey et al. (2021), racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare organizations exist and are disproportionate to minority groups such as Black Americans and Asian Americans.
Such inequalities result in adverse health effects by compromising the tenets of patient-centered care, patient safety, and positive medical outcomes. As a result, addressing the underlying organizational barriers to equal healthcare service delivery is a profound strategy for tackling health discrepancies at the organizational level.
Undoubtedly, health inequalities and disparities cut across various domains, including access to person-centered care, patient safety, coordination, affordability, and effective treatment. Since the US grapples with social determinants of health discrepancies, it is essential to incorporate evidence-based strategies from quantitative and qualitative data regarding measures of health inequalities.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 present insights on various health discrepancies prevailing among ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Therefore, national and state governments should use such data to formulate policies and programs addressing health disparities. Evidence-based recommendations are Medicaid expansion, implementing community-based interventions to ensure equality, and eliminating structural racism in healthcare settings.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2021). National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report (pp. 1-316). AHRQ. https://www.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/research/findings/nhqrdr/2021qdr.pdf
Gómez, C., Kleinman, D., Pronk, N., Wrenn Gordon, G., Ochiai, E., & Blakey, C. et al. (2021). Addressing health equity and social determinants of health through Healthy People 2030. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, s249-s257. https://doi.org/10.1097/phh.0000000000001297
Lavizzo-Mourey, R., Besser, R., & Williams, D. (2021). Understanding and mitigating health inequities — past, current, and future directions. New England Journal of Medicine, 384(18), 1681-1684. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp2008628
Radley, D., Baumgartner, J., Collins, S., Zephyrin, L., & Schneider, E. (2021). Achieving racial and ethnic equity in US health care: A scorecard of state performance. Accessed 5th February 2022 from https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/scorecard/2021/nov/achieving-racial-ethnic-equity-us-health-care-state-performance.
Ward, B. (2020). The impact of Medicaid expansion on states’ budgets. Accessed 5th February 2022 from https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/may/impact-medicaid-expansion-states-budgets.
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