Compliance Tool: Healthcare Equity Plan Model Form

October 21, 2022

Here’s a form you can use to develop and implement an effective healthcare equity plan for your lab. The form includes the key objectives required by current equity standards. You then need to supply the details necessary to achieve each objective, including:

  • The action steps you’ll take—which should include both short- and long-term measures;
  • The resources and people you’ll need to accomplish the objective;
  • The metrics you’ll use to measure progress and ultimate achievement of the objective; and
  • The timeline by which you hope to achieve the objective—which you can break down into stages.

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ABC Laboratories Health Equity Plan

Objective

Action Steps

Resources Needed

Metrics

Timeline

Designate Health Disparities Officer

 

 

 

 

Use self-reporting methodology to collect demographic data from patient and/or caregiver

 

 

 

 

Verify accuracy and completeness of patient self-reported demographic data

 

 

 

 

Train lab staff in collection of self-reported patient demographic data

 

 

 

 

Use demographic data to screen patients’ health-related social needs

 

 

 

 

Stratify patient safety, quality, and/or outcome measures using demographic data

 

 

 

 

Analyze stratified data to identify disparities by demographic

 

 

 

 

Develop and implement plan to eliminate at least one identified disparity

 

 

 

 

Develop mechanism to measure effectiveness of steps taken to eliminate identified disparity

 

 

 

 

Develop mechanism for follow-up action when steps to eliminate disparity fail

 

 

 

 

Incorporate equity principles into mission and values statements

 

 

 

 

Link quality and equity

 

 

 

 

Get leadership buy-in and commitment to creating culture of equity

 

 

 

 

Empower staff to address equity

 

 

 

 

Tie leadership compensation to equity and disparity reduction goals

 

 

 

 

Use reporting mechanism to communicate outcomes for various patient populations

 

 

 

 

Build working ties with community groups and organizations serving impacted populations

 

 

 

 

Establish mechanism for annual equity plan progress reports

 

 

 

 

 

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This article originally appeared in G2 Intelligence, Lab Compliance Advisor, October, 2022.

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