SCHA and its member hospitals are devoting significant resources to achieve their vision of providing safe, high quality health care to each patient every time.(Learn more at www.everypatient.org).  As the population in South Carolina becomes increasingly racially and ethnically diverse, it will become more critical to address healthcare disparities and persistent differences in access, utilization, and health outcomes of different patient groups, especially vulnerable minority and underserved populations.  Improving the collection of accurate patient race and ethnicity information can assist hospitals and state policy makers to:

• Understand the racial and ethnic makeup of the patient population
• Identify gaps in services provided to diverse minority groups
• Assess their health status and healthcare needs or barriers
• Develop quality improvement tools and innovative programs to improve the quality of care for all patients.
  
  
  

Tools:

• NQF Endorsing a Framework and Preferred Practices for Measuring and Reporting Culturally Competent Care

Links:

• HRET Disparities Toolkit (link)
  
  
• HRET Health Research & Educational Trust of New Jersey (link)