CHARTSaaS

N.B. — This post is one in a series of ten, based on Becker’s Infection Control & Clinical Quality article 10 top patient safety issues for 2017 by Heather Punke & Brian Zimmerman and published on January 18, 2017 (http://patientsafetymovement.org/challenges-solutions/actionable-patient-safety-solutions-apss/).

“Health equity. In 2001, the Institute of Medicine [an agency of the U.S. Federal government, well-known as the author of the 1999 study referred to as To err is human …] established six aims for improvement in healthcare: to make it safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable. While great strides have been made toward the first five, progress on health equity has lagged, according to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. IHI [The Institute for Healthcare Improvement] called health equity the ‘forgotten aim’ in a 2016 whitepaper.

Health equity, per the IHI, is defined as ‘when everyone has the opportunity to attain their full health potential.’ When access to health isn’t equitable, it can lead to poor health outcomes for patients. For instance, black people have much lower life expectancies compared to white people in the U.S., and people in households with lower incomes have higher relative risk of mortality than those with higher incomes.

While social determinants play a large role in health outcomes, healthcare organizations have a big part to play in improving health equity in their communities. The IHI, the CDC [the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and other organizations have made resources available to show hospitals and physicians how to make health equity a strategic priority, decrease institutional racism and develop partnerships with other organizations in their community.”