By Tamara E. Holmes
Diversity is an issue that all businesses must grapple with, but for healthcare
companies, maintaining a diverse workforce takes on a whole new urgency.
Today's
global society means patients that vary in gender, race, and creed are likely
to pass through any healthcare organization's doors. Without a diverse workforce,
treating those patients becomes potentially harder as language and cultural misunderstandings
can decrease the quality of communication between patients and the medical staff
working to help them.
"We're very clear how the country and the city of Boston are changing in terms
of demographics," says Deborah Washington, director of diversity for Massachusetts
General Hospital.
To address those changes, Washington says the hospital has a number of procedures
in place to attract and retain a workforce that mirrors the people it services.
"All of us relate to someone who looks like us and sounds like us," she says.
Patients who see a hospital that values people like them on their staffs are more
likely to feel comfortable as they are being treated.
A report released in 2002 by the Institute of Medicine, an organization commissioned
by Congress to address healthcare disparities, found that communication barriers
between patients and healthcare workers contributed to disparities in the quality
of healthcare received by minorities as opposed to whites.
The report, titled "Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities
in Health Care," went on to suggest that the country's healthcare system would
improve by finding ways to increase the percentage of minority healthcare workers
at the nation's hospitals, research organizations and other healthcare facilities.
Language
barriers can be particularly harmful to doctor-patient relationships. If a patient
has a difficult time expressing what's wrong, a doctor will have that much more
difficult of a time diagnosing the problem.
To combat that problem, an increasing number of healthcare companies are making
sure they have employees who can understand spanish, according to Natalie Cepeda,
academic director of Boston-based Habl Espana, a company that teaches corporate
employees how to speak Spanish.
Among the healthcare organizations that have sought out Cepeda's services
are Brigham & Womens' Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.
The movement to maintain diversity in healthcare professions stretches from
the nation's hospitals all the way to its medical schools.
In an article for the Journal of the American Medical Association published
March 5, Jordan J. Cohen, president of the Association of American Medical Colleges,
spelled out four reasons why medical schools should support affirmative action
programs that are designed to attract minorities to the medical profession.
- Medical schools should reflect the diversity of the American population that they serve.
- A more diverse workforce will push for better care of underserved groups.
- A more diverse medical research workforce could speed up the discovery of cures and vaccines.
- Diversity among managers will facilitate new ideas and business practices.
The AAMC feels so strongly, in fact, about efforts to promote minority enrollment
in medical schools that it filed an amicus, or "friend-of-the-court," brief with
the Supreme Court supporting the University of Michigan's use of race as one of
the factors in its admissions policy in order to promote diversity.
Harvard Medical School's Minority Faculty Development Program, which aims
to increase the recruitment and retention of minority students, last year was
recognized for its efforts by being designated a Center of Excellence in Minority
Health by the Health Resources and Services Administration, a division of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In conjunction with the honor, the
program won a $1.6 million grant over three years.
"Building a diverse physician and biomedical work force requires a partnership
of many organizations, both local and national," said Joan Reede, Harvard Medical
School's Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership, in a statement at the time.
"The results of these efforts will be better health care outcomes for racial and
ethnic minorities in our community."
The need for diversity is also evident when it comes to healthcare management,
says Rupert Evans, president and CEO of the Institute for Diversity in Health Management.
"We need more minorities at the executive level," he says. While the percentage
of minorities in management positions is minuscule, "we have seen over the last
five years that [diversity in management] is on the radar screen," he says.
But it's important for healthcare companies to remember that diversity isn't
just about race, says Massachusetts General Hospital's Washington. "We're talking
about [diversity] in a broad sense," she says. "We keep in mind socioeconomic
status, gender, disability - not just race and ethnicity."
The teaching hospital does this by providing medical students with personalized
attention with the hopes that it will lead those students to stay on when they
finish their training. Massachusetts General Hospital also educates all staff
members about different cultures so they are better able to communicate with any
patients that walk through the doors.
Washington, who has been the director of diversity of the hospital since 1995,
says diversity is a big topic in healthcare, but the industry as a whole is making gains.
When it comes down to it, she says, diversity promotes communication.
"Patients must communicate with doctors," she says.
Tamara Holmes is a freelance writer based in Largo, MD. She can be reached at maraholmes@aol.com.
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