Healthcare systems are uniquely positioned to identify nonmedical needs and collaborate with community partners to get those needs met, Airica Steed, EdD, RN, president and CEO of Cleveland-based MetroHealth System, told Becker's.
"No single person, institution, organization, sector or policy created these disparities, and no single person, institution, organization, sector or policy alone can fix them," she said. "It's going to require collaboration. It's going to require all of us to come together, to galvanize together, on one collective agenda."
Here is how she said MetroHealth is leading the way in health equity and what work remains.
Health equity best practices
Health equity programs should foster greater trust in healthcare, including improving personal interactions with patients and families and improving cultural and linguistic competency, Dr. Steed said. Having diverse leadership and workforce teams, and having involvement in the community and patients' lives, are essential to creating strong health equity programs.
When it comes to building better programs, creating an infrastructure in the program and the system that allows for information to be collected and stratified by data points such as race, language and sexual identity is important to keeping health equity front of mind.
Programs that have worked
Using those best practices, MetroHealth has launched a number of successful programs, Dr. Steed said.
The system's Institute for HOPE (Health, Opportunity, Partnerships and Empowerment), through its Social Drivers of Health Screening Program, identifies nonmedical issues patients face and connects them with services. Since its launch, it has screened more than 158,000 patients in 11 nonmedical need areas, including food security, housing, transportation and financial stability. Of patients screened in 2023, 68% who wanted assistance were connected with services.
MetroHealth is also finding more ways to care for patients where they are. The system provides care inside dozens of schools, provides community health fairs and utilizes partnerships with community organizations, Dr. Steed said.
In 2023, MetroHealth and its partners distributed more than 160,000 meals, reached almost 5,000 students, had more than 1,700 mobile unit visits, connected 1,300 households with internet access and connected 127 patients to healthy housing intervention for lead and home repairs to mitigate fall risks.
"Not to be ignored are efforts to bring digital health solutions to our communities, through broadband access and our own telehealth solutions, including remote patient monitoring," Dr. Steed said. "These help us reach patients, including those in underserved communities."
Where more work is needed
Although a great deal is being done to reduce health inequity, Dr. Steed said healthcare systems must do more to address racism.
"As we strategize ways to reverse health disparities and as we create and launch programs, we must — at every step — acknowledge the deep roots and long branches of racism and to build strategies and solutions to address it," she said. "More needs to be done broadly to ensure structural racism is more consistently addressed and in a way that creates collective impact."