This has been a banner year for Moffitt Cancer Center, with five national distinctions honoring their steadfast commitment to equitable care, including recent recognition from the American Hospital Association (AHA) naming Moffitt an Equity of Care Award honoree.
Though the coveted AHA award is still nascent in its fourth year, Moffitt has been expanding its approach to combat disparities since the 1990s. And despite their success to date, the organization recognizes that the crusade for health equity must be one that is both ongoing, and have multiple points of approach.
Here's a quick look at some of Moffitt's leading initiatives:
- Continuous review of stratified data: Moffitt's “Disparities Dashboard” provides clinical metrics, stratified by race, ethnicity, gender, and language preference to help them continually review patient care outcomes, and thus determine appropriate response efforts.
- Investment in interpreter services: A certified team of in-house medical interpreters helps Moffitt address the reality that language barriers are an especially high hurdle in effective cancer care, where discussions can be both complex and sensitive.
- Cultural competency education for team members: Quality Interactions is proud to provide eLearning courses that teach team members across Moffitt how to take a person-centered approach to cultural competence in cancer care.
- Community outreach to vulnerable populations: Moffitt's wellness program, "M-POWER," increased no-cost cancer prevention education and screenings within their Tampa Bay community, particularly among low-income, rural, non-English speaking, and racial or ethnic minority populations.
Essential to their success, these efforts are underpinned by leadership support at every turn. “Our diversity and inclusion, equity, and cultural competency efforts were initiated by our leaders, and they continue to support us in making it the fabric of our organization,” describes Cathy Grant, Senior Director of Moffitt Diversity.
The takeaway here? Reducing disparities is not a “flash-in-the-pan” effort. Just as the roots of healthcare disparities are complex and varied, so too must be an organization's response. We applaud Moffitt for standing as a true and working exemplar of what dedication to health equity looks like.