How healthcare leaders can support DEI initiatives and improve health equity

Diversity, equity and inclusion are imperative for the vitality of the communities we serve and critical to the success of our industry. As healthcare leaders, we are uniquely positioned and ethically responsible for ensuring our patients have access to high-quality care. We must also build environments where our providers and staff feel accepted, safe and secure.

Just as bias, inequities and discrimination can become deeply entrenched in a system, so can diversity, equity and inclusion. Correcting course requires insight, tenacity and transparency – but healthcare leaders can’t do it alone. With the right resources, however, leaders can find success.

At the Nashville Health Care Council, we believe the right resources are found through collaboration. To discover how to improve DEI and health equity, we can learn from those we serve – and from each other.

We’ve learned a great deal from listening to others, including our members, employees, board, providers, patients and DEI experts across the industry. Here’s some of what we’ve learned, which may be helpful for other leaders working toward health equity:

• Implement a detailed, metrics-based DEI plan. Invest in the expertise of a DEI consulting firm to help organize efforts. As you conduct interviews, surveys and strategic meetings, get input from all stakeholder groups: patients, providers, staff, leaders, board members and community partners.
• Live your DEI plan. Avoid letting your DEI plan languish. Commit to action. Design a living, breathing plan that will be implemented over time and grow with the changing demands of your organization and industry.
• Focus on the Four Es. In the Nashville Health Care Council’s Industry Insights, Tracey Walker, principal and national leader of culture, diversity and inclusion with RSM US LLP, outlined Four Es to address explicit and implicit biases. Walker says healthcare leaders can commit to becoming educated, changing the environment, gaining exposure and learning from experience.
• Serve others through the Five Cs. Walker also outlined the Five Cs to remember when treating patients from underserved communities. We can be caring by making eye contact and actively listening to patients; be curious about their lives and health concerns; collaborate with patients, colleagues and the care team; think critically about conscious and unconscious bias; and demonstrate the courage to model these principles across the organization.
• Ensure your DEI plan and organizational mission are intertwined. Weave diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the fabric of your organization and mission. At the Nashville Health Care Council, our mission is to “inspire global collaboration to improve healthcare.” Our DEI goal is to “welcome diverse perspectives, which we believe will create better workplaces for employees and healthcare for patients. Through education and leadership, we strive to inspire a health care ecosystem that embraces the values of diversity and inclusion in pursuit of equitable, high-quality outcomes.”
• Make decisions that support diversity. David Dill, Nashville Health Care Council board chairman and president and CEO of LifePoint Health, says, “Embracing and encouraging diversity within our member companies is important, necessary work, and we must hold each other accountable and share best practices as we work toward our goals and strive to influence the broader industry. These issues cannot be solved overnight, but we are optimistic our collective actions will manifest positive change around DEI.”
• Commit to learning from others. Implement opportunities for continued learning. At the Nashville Health Care Council, we bring together healthcare companies, healthcare service firms, individual healthcare professionals and regional stakeholders. The collective engagement of this group is poised to enhance organizations and deliver better patient care. We are continually learning how to build more inclusive cultures throughout the international reach of our network for our industry’s success and the good of those we serve.

The Nashville Health Care Council is an organization of more than 300 member companies, including local and national healthcare companies and professional service firms. Our most meaningful work is facilitated by assembling leaders and disseminating information throughout the U.S. and across the globe. By coming together, member organizations are building a stronger national and international healthcare environment.

What DEI lessons have you learned from others? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us online at the Nashville Health Care Council.