Organizational Cultural Competence Assessment

Organizational Cultural Competence Assessment

1. Collect race, ethnicity and language preference (REAL) data.
a. Do you systematically collect race, ethnicity and language preferences of all your patients?

2. Identify and report disparities.
a. Do you use REAL data to look for variations in clinical outcomes, resource utilization, length of stay, and frequency of readmissions within your organization?
b. Do you compare patient satisfaction ratings among diverse groups and act on the information?
c. Do you actively use REAL data for strategic and outreach planning?

3. Provide culturally and linguistically competent care.
a. Have your patient representatives, social workers, discharge planners, financial counselors and other key patient and family resources received special training in diversity issues?
b. Has your organization developed a “language resource,” identifying qualified people inside and outside your organization who could help your staff communicate with patients and families from a wide variety of nationalities and ethnic backgrounds?
c. Are your written communications with patients and families available in a variety of languages that reflect the ethnic and cultural makeup of your community?
d. Based on the racial and ethnic diversity of the patients you serve, as well as those in your service area, do you educate your staff at orientation and on a continuing basis about cultural issues important to your patients?
e. Are core services in your organization, such as signage, food service, chaplaincy services, patient information and communications, attuned to the diversity of the patients for whom you care?

4. Develop culturally competent disease management programs.
a. Does your organization gather information to determine conditions of high prevalence within your community’s minority populations?
b. Does your organization offer disease management programs that effectively address these conditions?
c. Do your disease management programs address the barriers to care that are particularly challenging for minority patients?

5. Increase diversity and minority workforce pipelines.
a. Does your organization have a mentoring program in place to help develop your best talent, regardless of gender, race or ethnicity?
b. Are search firms required to present a mix of candidates reflecting your community’s diversity?
c. Do your recruitment efforts include strategies to reach out to racial and ethnic minorities in your community?
d. Do you acknowledge and honor diversity in your employee communications, awards programs and other internal celebrations?
e. Does your human resources department have a system in place to measure diversity progress and report it to you and your board?

6. Involve the community.
a. Has your community relations team identified community organizations, schools, churches, businesses and publications that serve racial and ethnic minorities for outreach and educational purposes?
b. Do you have a strategy to partner with community leaders to work on health issues important to community members?

7. Make cultural competency an institutional priority.
a. Has your board set goals on improving organizational diversity, providing culturally competent care and eliminating disparities in care as part of your strategic plan?
b. Is diversity awareness and cultural competency training mandatory for all senior leadership, management, staff and volunteers?