CommonSpirit Health plans to expand its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts despite employers across the country and in all industries backing away from the programs and the Trump administration taking aim at them.
The 137-hospital system seeks to bolster its partnership with Morehouse School of Medicine, a historically Black medical school, in part by creating 10 new residency training sites at CommonSpirit hospitals. It also is seeking a chief health equity officer to help lead those efforts, said Dr. Veronica Mallett, chief administrative officer of the More in Common Alliance, a partnership formed by the health system and Morehouse.
Related: Trump directs broad ‘pause’ in federal funding
In the aftermath of the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer, DEI initiatives were announced by companies and employers of all sizes. Health systems advanced DEI and health equity initiatives too, including University of Iowa Health Care, Trinity Health, UCLA Health, Advocate Health, University Hospitals, GE Healthcare, Ochsner Health, Baystate Health and UnityPoint Health, among many others. The goal was to improve access to care while making the demographics of their workforces better reflect the communities they served.
Employers across corporate America already were rolling back their efforts before President Donald Trump began a second term last week with a strong anti-DEI stance. Since being sworn in Jan. 20, Trump has signed several executive orders on the subject, in one case calling the programs "illegal and immoral discrimination programs."
Healthcare, a key driver of the nation's economy and an industry that relies heavily on federal funding, has largely been silent on the future of DEI efforts. Numerous health systems did not return calls or declined to discuss DEI in healthcare or their initiatives. The Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Hospital Association each said they were reviewing Trump's actions.
Mallett said CommonSpirit has invested $115 million toward its partnership with Morehouse and is expanding its DEI efforts due to the positive effect on patient outcomes.
"Hospitals and health systems have both a financial and community mandate to increase representation in the healthcare workforce," Mallett said in an email. "The source of this mandate is the undeniable improvement in health outcomes that occur when someone is [cared for] by a person who looks like them, shares their language and culture and understands the patient's lived experience. Value-based pay plans are an advantage to the provider/hospital only if outcomes are improved at lower costs. This cannot be achieved without representation of those underrepresented in medicine."
Fear of cuts to federal funding for healthcare organizations that are upholding DEI initiatives may be keeping some providers quiet, said Andrea Ducas, vice president of health policy for the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning advocacy group.
"Toward the end of the [first] Trump administration, from what I recall, he had some proposed rules that would have stripped federal funding for institutions that had that kind of [DEI] function," Ducas said. "So, I'm worried that might happen again."
In a survey of healthcare and life sciences executives taken between August and September by the Deloitte Center for Health, 64% of respondents said they anticipated an increased focus on health equity within the industry in 2025. Also, 90% said they expected investments in health equity within their organizations to either remain the same as in 2024 or increase. The results were released Tuesday.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Dr. Veronica Mallett also served as chief administrative officer of CommonSpirit.