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Improving Quality and Achieving Equity:
A Guide for Hospital Leaders
Chapter 2: Why Should You Care?
(pdf)
“I think the three major arguments for addressing disparities are the quality argument, the caring argument, and the financial argument.” – William Fulkerson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, Duke University Hospital
Racial and ethnic disparities in health care have an impact on quality, safety, cost, and risk management. Disparities can lead to increased medical errors, prolonged length of stay, avoidable hospitalizations and readmissions, and over and under-utilization of procedures. Addressing disparities is no longer just a moral or ethical imperative – it has now taken on greater importance with significant bottom line implications, and has been acknowledged by Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum as an essential component of quality of care, and as part of community benefit principles. We now present several major “cases” for addressing disparities and achieving equity that are of critical importance to hospital leaders.
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