Patients are the new CEO
For Black History Month, we launched Beyond Checking the Box, a series of three briefings dedicated to the centering a Diversity Operating System in health care, content and companies at large. sparks & honey’s Chief Client Officer and DE&I Practice Lead Davianne Harris wrote a short perspective on the business implications coming from the first briefing: The Future of Health Equity.
Healthcare is one of the most basic needs of humanity. And the most inaccessible within our society.
Three in four Americans owe more than $2,000 in medical debt, a number disproportionately hurting Black Americans, according to a recent survey by Discover Personal Loans. Debt is only one of the many factors impacting the health equity landscape. Consider that African Americans have the highest mortality rate of any racial and ethnic group for all cancers combined and for most major cancers, even when controlled for socioeconomic status. Black women die during childbirth at a rate three times that of white women, regardless of their income.
Access to care is a typical barrier with preventative measures often not being exercised on behalf of Black patients, and particularly Black women, but as health advocate, Rene Syler, speaks of her own experience navigating our system it’s self-advocacy that’s most critical. “I want Black women to understand, ‘you can walk out. You don’t have to stay [at the doctor’s office]. You don’t have to be there with somebody who’s not respecting you or who’s not listening to you or who’s not validating your concerns,’” Syler said in our recent Culture Briefing on health equity.
In addition to advocacy, empathy is crucial for providers. “I just don’t really think that you can be a provider of care in any capacity without actually gaining an understanding of people in their own terms,” said Antonio Melo, executive leader of Humana’s Digital Health & Analytics Experience Center.
Achieving better health outcomes for all patients remains complex, but advocacy, empathy and access are critical for addressing the inherent biases that exist within our healthcare systems.
Watch the full briefing below:
Learn more about sparks & honey's work around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in our Intelligence Report: The Equity Effect.
Davianne Harris is Chief Client Officer & Head of the DE&I Consulting Practice at sparks & honey. Davianne manages C-suite client relationships and drives organic growth among key clients while embedding diversity, equity and inclusion into the way organizational transformation is achieved. She is an avid fitness enthusiast and loves traveling with her husband and two children.