Numerous op-eds, American Medical Association (AMA) blog posts, and journal articles explore different perspectives concerning the role of providers in supporting health equity.
While provider organizations can’t solve or prevent many social determinants of health (SDOH), they can help address a number of factors that can create disparities thereby reducing inequities.
Here are three reasons why committing to health equity is relevant and timely for providers.
1. Take a holistic view of your patient
Physicians have been trained to diagnose and treat diseases and injuries. This biomedical approach has evolved with the understanding of the impact of social determinants of health.
This includes an awareness of how factors like race, ethnicity, education, and literacy, among other factors, directly impact the quality of care many patients receive.
Population health initiatives, chronic care management, and integrated behavioral health have shown clinicians that achieving health goals takes more than a proper diagnosis and treatment plan.
Nearly 85% of surveyed physicians believe social needs are directly related to poor health, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
A physician-patient or team-based partnership that supports treatment planning goes a long way toward better outcomes and care quality.
Plus, working collaboratively with patients to ensure their success actualizes the physician’s skills and aligns with their natural interest in caring for people.
2. Know your influence in addressing inherent inequities
Physicians are problem solvers. They use their extensive education, experience, and real-world know-how to diagnose and treat patients.
However, each physician has the opportunity and power to become a change agent for their patients, the broader community, and the discipline of medicine.
Being candid about your team’s approach to patient care from a health equity perspective can be powerful. This reveals the importance and impact each clinician has on the overall value of healthcare services.
Physicians are professionals committed to lifelong and evidence-based learning. One’s approach to addressing troubling health inequities and disparities should be no different.
3. Understand provider financial models to prioritize health equity
Pay-for-performance models, such as ACO REACH and Making Care Primary, prioritize health equity with embedded, contractual requirements.
This makes investing in your own health equity journey a smart business decision. This is particularly true in primary care, where the transition to value-based care has intensified.
Where to start with health equity
Providers are already overwhelmed; adding health equity to the list can seem extraneous. However, relevant measures can be more easily included in regular education, training, or practice strategy opportunities.
Start small. Work toward a vision of how health equity can inform patient care and improve performance.
Consider the following questions to understand what health equity can mean for your organization and your patients.
What is health equity, and what health disparities affect our patients?
Take some time to explore the topic in general ways. Use resources like the AMA STEPS Forward™ toolkit, including “Racial and Health Equity: Concrete STEPS for Smaller Practices.”
How well do we know our patients?
Patient decision making and behavior are not random. Do you know the actual motivations that determine how patients seek and respond to health care?
Is your organization collecting and using REaLS data (race, ethnicity, language, and sex)? Is it assessing social determinants of health? How could your organization gain insight into the barriers that patients face or disparities that put them at a disadvantage?
What assumptions are we making about our patients and their ability to implement our treatment plans?
Uncover ways that your organization could be contributing to disparities.
It’s tough to think your best efforts may hurt patients through unconscious bias or assumptions. But, this is the most critical step in the health equity journey – uncovering preconceived notions and seeing how these may work against health equity.
Are we communicating in a way that is open, compassionate, humble, as well as approachable and understandable to all our patients?
Verbal, written, digital communication, and even body language convey a lot to patients. However, are your materials easy to understand for everyone? Do medical terms and healthcare jargon hinder clear and accurate understanding, impacting decisions and cooperation?
How can you meet patients where they are by communicating in ways that are more open, humble, and accessible?
Health equity is a journey that you can start today
Asking uncomfortable questions and taking positive action can help provider organizations commit to health equity. This ongoing conversation is a new opportunity to further support patient success and improve care quality.
How ThoroughCare can help address patient needs
ThoroughCare enables providers to assess social determinants of health for proactive support and patient motivation. ThoroughCare can:
- Streamline the creation of patient care plans
- Use SMART Goals to measure individualized progress
- Support staff workflows with guided, validated assessments
- Help motivate patients through clinical recommendations
- Analyze patient risk factors and generate clinical recommendations
- Identify behavioral health conditions
ThoroughCare offers comprehensive integration with leading EHRs, health information exchanges, remote devices, and advance care plans. While ThoroughCare Analytics visualizes and helps interpret patient and provider data.