The Trustee Quarterly Newsletter for Fall 2024 is now available, with the focus on measuring equity in patient care. The desire to provide equitable care to all patients is an ethical baseline upon which hospital leaders and board members generally agree. Executing equitable care is a bigger challenge. The South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations continues to provide resources and support our member hospitals and health systems in their efforts to become more equitable organizations.
Whether through the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations (SDAHO) or the American Hospital Association (AHA), members can receive customized resources and actions plans to help guide their organization through any process.
The (AHA) Institute for Diversity and Health Equity has designed the Health Equity Roadmap as a framework to guide hospitals and health care systems to advance equity. AHA goals toward advancing health equity began in 2015 with the #123forEquity Pledge Campaign, which many hospitals signed as a commitment to addressing health equity. There are three key steps:
- A Health Equity Transformation Assessment, which is an online questionnaire designed to provide hospitals or health systems with a baseline for assessing performance and opportunities for transformation in health equity.
- Create Action Plans and Use AHA Resources, using the profile of your organization based on the assessment. Resources help provide structured action plans and resources.
- Â Join the Virtual Community, to exchange ideas and connect with colleagues.
For more information, go to https://equity.aha.org.
(SDAHO) knows that equitable care in hospitals and health systems is of the highest importance for our members. Accessing education is an essential element in helping understand and implement equitable care concepts. SDAHO understands the associations’ role in providing a variety of educational offerings to help our members and leadership better understand how to deliver high quality and compassionate care to all patients.
Awareness and Partnerships
For one week in June the American Hospital Association (AHA) and SDAHO promoted Community Health Improvement Week, with part of its focus on health equity. SDAHO actively encouraged members to spotlight their own organizations and their commitment to population health, hospital community health equity, and lift systems  up who have a community health worker program, that strive for health equity within their system.
SDAHO partnered with Project ECHO for an Equity Miniseries titled, Ethical Dilemmas Across Health Equity. This six-part series examined ethical decision-making and equity in hospice and palliative care. Throughout 2024 SDAHO Provided partner and association sponsored education focusing on health equity. Sessions and programs from 2024 included:
- Project ECHO for an Equity Miniseries titled, Ethical Dilemmas Across Health Equity (July – Aug 2024)
- Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) Achieving Health Equity and Reducing Implicit Bias in Palliative Care (Aug – Dec. 2024)
- 5th annual South Dakota Rural Health Equity Summit (Sept. 5, 2024)
- Reimagining Rural Health Equity: Understanding Disparities and Advancing Rural Policy, Practice and Research (Oct. 25, 2024)
To access previous webinars from 2024 and upcoming webinars, visit www.sdaho.org/webinars.
For more trustee resources and previous issues of the Trustee Quarterly Newsletter visit our Trustee Resource Center.
