Taking action on health equity: Six levers of transformation for hospitals

Nov. 1, 2023 / By Melissa Clarke, MD

The landscape in health equity continues to evolve. There has been a lot of ground covered since the 2003 landmark Institute of Medicine report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. We have journeyed from the evidence that the quality of health care provided is unjustly influenced by race and ethnicity, to the recent embedding of “health equity” in all federal policies. As the quest for equity in our health care system continues its evolution, the need for our hospital and health systems to not only keep up, but also weigh in and lead on issues of equity becomes more imperative. 

Today on our 3M Inside Angle podcast we have two leaders from the American Hospital Association (AHA) to discuss the role of hospital and health systems in closing health equity gaps.  

Joy Lewis MSW, MPH, senior vice president, health equity strategies and executive director for the Institute for Diversity and Health Equity at the American Hospital Association. She has broad oversight of functions related to diversity, health equity and inclusion to support and build healthy communities. 

Akin Demehin is senior director quality and safety policy at the American Hospital Association. He leads public policy analysis, development and advocacy efforts related to quality and patient safety on behalf of the AHA’s nearly 5,000 member hospitals and health systems; as well as AHA’s regulatory policy work on national quality measurement and pay-for-performance programs, workforce and health equity that affecting hospitals, physicians and post-acute care providers. Both Joy and Akin will help us understand recent related policy changes and discuss the equity-based best practices hospitals can pursue in their community and population health strategy. 

Melissa E. Clarke, MD, CMQ, is the chief population health officer, health care transformation and health equity at 3M Health Information Systems.