The
Business Case for Increased Diversity of Healthcare Practitioners
by Tory Clark - FastCompany.com
Healthcare institutions can benefit
enormously as a result of diversifying their patient-facing workforce.
The first, and perhaps most important, benefit is improved quality of
care. The need for diversity in healthcare begins with the
primary concern of all healthcare providers - patients. Much like their
symptoms and ailments, patients cannot be treated in a one-size-fits all
manner.
A diverse healthcare workforce makes
communication with, and ultimately treatment of, a diverse patient base more
effective. For example, research by the Patient Advocate Foundation has
shown that African American and Hispanic communities in particular face
increased health challenges due to the higher than normal incidence of some
diseases, with the most prevalent being cancer, diabetes, heart and kidney
disease.
The healthcare issues that ethnic
minority patients face can be compounded by language and cultural
misunderstandings, hindering effective communication between patients and the
medical staff, and potentially leading to inadequate or inferior service,
damaging the doctor-patient relationship.
Conversely however, when healthcare
organizations develop close relationships with patients and their communities,
the benefits include better utilization of resources, services tailored to meet
unique community needs, more substantive data and research information, better
physician relationships and referrals, and increased loyalty amongst both staff
and patients.
The demographic and disease management
statistics make the business case for a more diverse healthcare workforce
clear. However, there remains great room for improvement.
According to the 2008 US Department of
Labor statistics, the number of diverse physicians and surgeons did not reflect
that of the population (6.2% Black or African-American; 7.8% Asian; and 4.7%
Hispanic/Latino). The proportion of diverse Registered Nurses was 10% for
African Americans, 7.8% for Asians, and 4.7%for Hispanic/Latinos. Clearly
there is more to be done to close the gap between healthcare practitioners and
the populations that they serve.
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The
Business Case for Increased Diversity of Healthcare Administration and Leadership
by Tory Clark - FastCompany.com
In addition to increasing diversity
among healthcare practitioners, it is also imperative for healthcare
organizations to build a diverse senior management team that will reflect its
employee and patient-base. This will ensure a continually fresh
perspective on how healthcare organizations provide culturally competent care
and meet the emerging needs of an increasingly diverse community.
However, here too there is room for
improvement. A 1992 study conducted by the American College of Healthcare
Executives (ACHE) and the National Association of Health Services Executives
(NAHSE) showed that minorities represented 20% of hospital employees but less
than 1% of senior-level management positions.
In the nearly 17 years since these
statistics were released, while the issue of leadership diversity in healthcare
has been highlighted, and the business case has become even clearer as the
result of an increasingly diverse demographic, sadly the statistics have not improved
dramatically.
The negative impact of this is not just
reflected in health services provided - organizations that fail to demonstrate
a commitment to diversity in their own senior management team will likely also
be adversely affected when it comes to recruitment and retention. These
organizations have been shown to lose significant numbers of their
high-potential diversity hires to competitor organizations that offer more
obvious opportunities for advancement (mentoring and senior role models are key
to retention, particularly for a minority employee base).
However, if potential employees'
perception of an organization is that of one that reaches out to a diverse
population and is staffed by a diverse workforce, then recruitment initiatives
will benefit, resulting in an increasingly diverse employee base.
The cost to businesses of not being
adequately diverse is very real. Research has shown that candidates
actively eliminate consideration of organizations that demonstrate a lack of
ethnic or gender diversity.
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