How health disparity initiatives at US News’ top hospitals are faring a year later
Kelly Gooch and Hannah Mitchell – August 18th, 2021
Last year, Becker’s spoke to the top 10 hospitals named to U.S. News and World Report’s 2020-21 Best Hospitals Honor Roll to look at what they are doing to address health disparities. A year later, Becker’s checked in with those systems to look at how their health equity initiatives have evolved, what has been the most successful and if there are any results to report from those initiatives.
Mayo Clinic
In 2020, Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic announced an investment of $100 million over 10 years to combat health disparities.
This was a “big, bold move” for health system leaders, who have spent time over the last year identifying strategic priorities related to the investment, said John Knudsen, MD, medical director for Mayo Clinic’s Office of Health Equity and Inclusion.
Dr. Knudsen said Mayo has specifically considered how it will allocate this money across the organization from a multisite perspective, as well as how it will distribute the funds within research and education.
One part of the investment is developing an advanced diversity, equity and inclusion platform to identify and track progress in addressing disparities. It is intended to use both qualitative and quantitative metrics.