Black History Month: Using data to address health disparities
Every February, Black History Month is celebrated in the United States to recognize and celebrate the contributions and achievements of African Americans. It serves as a moment to reflect on their history and pay tribute to their challenges and accomplishments throughout history.
This is a time where we can reflect on our work as an organization to support and advance health equity in an effort to reduce disparities. Since 2015, when MultiCare Health System’s Center for Health Equity & Wellness was first established, our focus has been to ensure every patient and family MultiCare serves has the opportunity to enjoy optimal health.
Yet in the state of Washington and nationally, racial and ethnic disparities continue to contribute to negative health outcomes for many races/ethnicities, including African Americans.
For example:
- In Spokane County, African Americans are more likely to be underinsured than other racial groups.
- Nationally, Black men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and are twice as likely than white men to die of the disease.
- For many years in King County, infants born to Black mothers have been more likely to be low birth weight compared to babies born to mothers of other racial/ethnic groups.
Social, economic and health disparities are found to affect marginalized populations and people of color disproportionately.
One of the ways MultiCare works to support and sustain health equity and belonging in our community is through the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA). The CHNA is a process by which MultiCare seeks feedback from the community and captures meaningful data about the pressing needs affecting our region.
Every three years, we partner with local health departments and other health systems to collect and review this community health data. Our newest CHNA reports are now available.
Using the needs identified in the CHNA reports, MultiCare develops individual implementation strategies for each hospital service area. These strategies represent our commitment to providing the highest-quality programs and services to promote health and healing in all the communities we serve.
These data-driven decisions address the health disparities and issues unique to each hospital service area. In short, these reports help ensure we’re responding to the most urgent needs in our communities.
Our CHNA reports from 2022 show we’ve made great strides together since the last reporting cycle in 2019, and also identify where there is more work to be done.
An effective equity and belonging program partners with the local community and focuses on the following aspects:
- Educating the workforce and community about social determinants of health and supporting avenues and programs that reverse the adverse effects
- Supporting local government officials and policymakers in promoting health equity and safety
- Identifying and resolving areas of systemic racism, with long-term watchfulness
- Creating, sustaining and supporting bias-free environments for the workforce and the patients we serve
- Supporting efforts to create and sustain diverse regional health boards and leadership teams
- Supporting access to health care, housing, food security, transportation and insurance, regardless of income, race or status
- Identifying and serving demographics and service areas disproportionately impacted by health disparities
MultiCare takes pride in addressing each of these aspects and partners with local nonprofit agencies also tackling the social determinants of health. Through intentionally designed programs, such as our Community Partnership Fund, our focus is to create a safe, healthy community for all to enjoy.
In celebration of Black History Month, you can join in the equity and belonging movement by reaching out to the community organizations doing the work every day and month of the year:
