GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Spectrum Health recently joined 40 other health care organizations across the country in signing a Health Equity Pledge that leverages data in addressing disparities.
Health officials will collect and review self-reported information from patients about their race, ethnicity, language and sex to help address health disparities on a national scale, according to a news release Tuesday.
“Our commitment to this pledge will enable Spectrum Health to address variation and gaps in the collection, stratification and review of race, ethnicity, language and sex data,” said Lynn Todman, vice president of health equity at Spectrum Health. “This is essential to gathering the knowledge and insights we need to address health disparities experienced by our patients, members and the communities we serve.”
As part of the pledge, Spectrum Health and other participants have committed to:
- Collecting data for at least 50% of the organization’s patient, member or customer population
- Stratifying and reviewing collected data by a top-priority quality or access metric for 90% of major business lines and/or departments/divisions of adequate size
- Participating in the Health Evolution Health Equity Learning Lab by sharing stratified data for select measures to facilitate anonymized benchmarking and to identify best practices for reducing disparities
“We know that the challenge of health inequities predates the pandemic and is much broader than COVID-19,” Todman said. “Spectrum Health’s commitment to Health Evolution, as well as numerous other initiatives, will help move the needle to fairer, more just and equitable health outcomes.”
