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Three National Initiatives Aimed at Eliminating Racial & Ethnic Disparities in Health Care Treatment Unveiled Today
10-06-05
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation moves towards identifying and implementing
real-world solutions to racial and ethnic gaps in health care
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACTS: Becky Watt Knight (202) 745-5050
October 6, 2005 Patrick McCabe (202) 745-5100
Washington, DC – In an effort to move discussion about reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care from theory to practice, a group of national health care experts announced their efforts today to identify and test specific interventions that will significantly reduce disparities over the next three years.
Under the leadership of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, three new national initiatives aimed at developing and testing potential solutions to well-documented racial and ethnic disparities in health care delivery were unveiled in Washington, D.C. Though the Foundation has long been involved in spearheading and funding research aimed at documenting such disparities, today’s announcement marks a significant shift toward identifying specific solutions.
“We know that the quality of health care in America is poor for many Americans, and numerous research studies have shown that African Americans and Hispanics are likely to receive a lower quality of treatment than their white counterparts – even when health coverage, income levels, and other social and economic factors are equal,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “It is time to move beyond documenting the unacceptable existence of these gaps in care and shift our focus to developing and testing solutions.”
In 2002, the nonpartisan Institute of Medicine issued a groundbreaking report entitled, “Unequal Treatment,” which provided unquestionable evidence that racial and ethnic minorities were more likely to receive lower-quality care than whites, particularly when being treated for heart disease or cancer. Reports issued by many leading research organizations in subsequent years have echoed those findings and have illustrated that little has been achieved in reducing these disparities.
“Racial and ethnic disparities in care are a fundamental failing of the American health care system,” said Carolyn Clancy, MD, director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. “Until we focus on improving the health and health care of racial minorities, we will not be able to ensure that all Americans receive the quality of health care treatment they deserve.”
Experts believe that a critical way to address and reduce racial and ethnic gaps in treatment is to improve the collection and tracking of patient data by race and ethnicity, evaluate whether specific patient populations are not getting the recommended standard of care, and design interventions that will consistently improve the quality of care for all patients, especially those most at risk of receiving lower-quality care.
Three New Programs Unveiled
Led by three of the nation’s most prominent experts in analyzing disparities and quality improvements, the new initiatives focus specifically on developing practical solutions that can be tested and replicated in real-world clinical settings. Teams at George Washington University, Harvard University, and University of Chicago will lead the three programs. Leaders of the programs – Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH (Boston), Marshall H. Chin, MD, MPH (Chicago), and former head of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH (Washington DC), are pledging to lead the field of health care with innovations that demonstrably prove what works to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in care.
Expecting Success: Excellence in Cardiac Care
Administered by the George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services, Expecting Success is a national initiative to reduce ethnic and racial disparities in cardiac care. Directed by Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, research professor, Department of Health Policy, the program will lead 10 selected hospitals through a collaborative effort to identify quality gaps in their treatment of cardiac patients and implement hospital-wide strategies aimed at reducing them. The program will focus on improving cardiovascular care for African American and Latino patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
The 10 hospitals selected to participate in the Expecting Success program represent a mix of urban, suburban, and rural facilities, as well as community, academic and teaching institutions. They include Del Sol Medical Center (El Paso, TX), Delta Regional Medical Center (Greenville, MS), Duke University Hospital (Durham, NC), Memorial Regional Hospital (Hollywood, FL), Montefiore Medical Center (Bronx, NY), Mount Sinai Hospital (Chicago, IL), Sinai-Grace Hospital (Detroit, MI), University Health System (San Antonio, TX), University of Mississippi Medical Center (Jackson, MS), and Washington Hospital Center (Washington, DC). Together, the facilities will participate in a “learning network” to test new ideas, quantify results and share lessons learned. Program successes will be shared nationwide throughout the four-and-a-half year initiative and potentially adopted at hospitals and medical centers across the country.
Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change
Through the Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change program, researchers at the University of Chicago will award and manage research grants totaling $5 million to organizations already implementing and evaluating interventions aimed at reducing disparities. With this pool of funds, project leaders hope that health plans, hospitals, and community clinics will be encouraged to focus on racial and ethnic disparities as a priority in their quality improvement agendas. Led by Marshall H. Chin, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine, co-director of General Internal Medicine Research, the team will also seek to inform the field about best practices going on with respect to quality improvement strategies specifically targeted at minority patients. Finding Answers is likely to focus on evaluating interventions in treatment areas where the evidence of racial and ethnic disparities is strong and the recommended standard of care is clear. Therefore, innovations in the treatment of cardiovascular disease, depression, and diabetes are strong possibilities for research funds.
Leading Change: Disparities Solutions Initiative
The Leading Change: Disparities Solutions Initiative will be directed by Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and program director for Multicultural Education at Massachusetts General Hospital. The initiative will have two key functions – to synthesize and disseminate the results of other disparities projects funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (especially from the Finding Answers initiative) and to then use these results to inform leadership and technical assistance activities aimed at helping health care systems develop and implement successful disparities interventions. Leading Change will widely disseminate such tactics – through interactive web conferences, program newsletters and an Executive Disparities Institute that will provide hands-on technical assistance and advice on implementing disparities to health care providers, insurers and administrators nationwide.
In this manner, the Finding Answers and Leading Change programs will work together to advance the pursuit and implementation of practical solutions for eliminating disparities in care within health care systems.
“Our priority is to improve the quality of health care provided to all Americans, but this cannot be done effectively until we first address the embedded problem of racial and ethnic disparities in treatment,” said Lavizzo-Mourey. “These programs are designed to work in concert to identify tested, effective approaches that can become common practice in hospitals and communities nationwide.”
For more information about the programs or to learn more about the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s commitment to removing racial and ethnic disparities in health care, visit www.rwjf.org.
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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 30 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. Helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need—the Foundation expects to make a difference in our lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.
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