In the United States, disparities in health outcomes are prominent and growing. Historical and contemporary social, structural, and political factors have created these disparities by limiting access to resources and opportunities for certain groups in our society. Achieving health equity involves breaking down these barriers and making sure that all people have access to the resources they need to achieve their full health potential.
The KHC is working to close health disparities and ensure that all people – regardless of race, ethnicity, income, identity, and geography – have access to high value healthcare and exceptional health outcomes.
Health Equity and Data
Healthcare quality and cost measurement is a strategy for providing better, more affordable care for individuals and the community. However, healthcare measurement is not often approached in a way that accounts for differences in delivery and outcomes based on race, ethnicity, sex, gender, cultural background, or other social determinants of health.
The KHC is convening a workgroup of local public health and healthcare leaders to determine what the role of healthcare measurement is in advancing health equity and how we can step into this role to drive equitable healthcare and health outcomes.
Racism in Healthcare Delivery
Racist systems, policies, and attitudes embedded in the United States’ infrastructure have allowed racial inequalities and systems of power to persist over hundreds of years. Healthcare is no exception to this dynamic. People of color experience more illness, worse outcomes, and earlier death than their white counterparts. These facts can be traced back to both structural and implicit discrimination in the healthcare delivery system.
On September 1, 2020, the KHC hosted a community health forum to learn more about the role of racism in the history, advancement, and future of healthcare delivery and how collective action between stakeholders can create an anti-racist healthcare system.
