In every corner of OhioHealth, we pursue the promise of inclusion. To get there, we are taking a long and hard look at who we are, what we do and how it makes others feel about us and themselves.
In 2018, OhioHealth’s board and leadership set three-year goals in five categories to ensure that every level of the organization was aligned along our inclusion journey.
First, we established a baseline by taking a deep dive into internal workforce and patient data.
From that, we developed specific, bold and measurable goals for what we call our “five P’s.”
Patients: We’d create an inclusive, frictionless experience for all. We analyzed Press Ganey and HCAHPS data to reduce the variation in overall experience scoring between patients who identified as Black and those who did not.
People: We’d build a “best place to work” for all. We used the employee engagement platform Perceptyx and Great Places to Work data to improve ethnic and racial representation among management.
Physicians: We’d provide an inclusive level of healthcare for all through our clinically integrated network. Press Ganey data found that we needed to hire more minority physicians and medical residents.
Partners: We’d increase our annual spend with small and diverse businesses.
Places: We’d make healthcare accessible in underserved ZIP codes and grow our number of minority primary-care physicians.
The data has allowed us to develop strategic plans in each area to improve someone’s experience with us.
DRG codes flagged opportunities in clinical areas and found the greatest one in maternity and med/surg. As a result of multiple initiatives, Press Ganey scores from patients who identify as Black have improved by 1.7% over our baseline. This improvement reduced the experience variation between them and white patients to just 0.5%.
To combat implicit bias and strengthen cultural competence, 92% of our vice presidents and senior directors have participated in a dialogue to promote diversity and inclusion.
We implemented a gender affirmation program for transgender patients. More than 7,000 of our 35,000 associates and providers have been trained in these new practices.
For our people, we completed a pay equity analysis and found no disparity between women and men who work for OhioHealth. A leadership analysis found that 44% of OhioHealth executives are women, higher than the S&P 500 average of 11%.
We created standard work to be purposeful in attracting and recruiting diverse talent. This is our own version of the NFL’s Rooney Rule mandating diverse candidates for all leadership roles, diverse interview panels, etc.
For our physicians, we developed strategies to recruit and retain persons of color. Among them is a forum of physician leaders to serve as an advisory group to the chief medical officer. We’ve recruited 24 physicians of color in seven underrepresented minority groups and increased diverse physician scholars from 40 to 48. We launched four physician networks for providers of color—Asian, Black, Hispanic and South Asian.
For our partners, we mandated that supplier diversity be a component of scoring in our request for proposal process.
For our places, we opened three medical centers in underserved neighborhoods for Medicare-eligible seniors. We also employed a private practice that primarily treats African Americans.
Each goal is rated quarterly. Two and a half years in, I’m happy to report that we will meet our goals for four of the five initiatives and will have made significant and meaningful improvement on the fifth.
Sometimes feedback is hard to hear, but when you truly listen, and take purposeful, measurable steps to fix whatever isn’t working, you are that much closer to being the inclusive organization you strive to be. This is a not a project that goes away after three years. We are committed to making inclusion something we live and breathe every day.
