SHIFT 1
Measuring and Accounting for Racism, not just Race
“What gets measured gets improved” Peter Drucker
Measuring Racism is not the same as Measuring Race.
Maybe you have begun to look at the health outcomes of different racial groups and other groups experiencing health inequities. Have begun to use REAL-SOGI as a way to see who might be experiencing inequities. And even begun working with those groups to understand the change. Great job! You have taken the first steps of your journey. Now it’s time to take the next steps. In an era where race-based measurement is increasingly coming into question, this shift will allow us to go deeper into the work of justice while avoiding common pitfalls.
We’re Looking for Healthcare Organizations to Build the Capacity to Measure, Address, and Account for RACISM, not just Race.
Where and how is racism–not just race–currently being measured in your healthcare organization? Who is trained within your healthcare to identify structural racism, measure it, and build strategies to improve it? Who holds and shares accountability and governance for correcting it? How is addressing structural racism part of your safety, improvement, and business strategy? Working on this shift will help you build the capacity to address, account for and shift structural racism as a core organizational strategy.
What are some examples of racism not (yet) measured
Any measure of a process, policy or practice that drives racial inequities that your organization is not currently focused on measuring and improving could fit into this category. Here are a few examples:
Wait times being much longer for people of color or on those on Medicaid compared with patients on commercial insurance
Is financial assistance being proactively and respectfully offered to all groups? Are medical debt collection practices reinforcing inequities for communities of color?
Assessing whether catchment areas for community benefits resemble racially gerrymandered maps and correcting these
What are Examples of Measuring Racism, not just Race?
Any measure of a process, policy or practice that drives racial inequities that your organization is not currently focused on measuring and improving could fit into this category.
Are wait times much longer for people of color or for those on Medicaid compared with patients on commercial insurance?
Is financial assistance being proactively and respectfully offered to all groups? Are medical debt collection practices reinforcing inequities for communities of color?
Are catchment areas for community benefits resembling racially gerrymandered maps?
What will Teams Learn to do?
Understand the difference between measuring inequitable outcomes and racist structures, processes and systems.
Together with the community, develop measures to both address an area of health inequity and the system that is producing it.
Implement processes and measures of structural justice in the system with a community that has been harmed as a core strategy, with accountability to the community and Board for improvement in that system.
Develop an equitable governance structure to oversee improvement that includes community members affected by inequities.