HealthBegins Compass for Health Equity Transformation

The Compass forHealth Equity Transformation

4 multilevel strategies teams can use in tandem to advance health equity and justice

Societal Level

Ecosystem Level

He althcare leaders and teams can advance health equity and justice with multilevel strategies.

System Level

Programs & Care Level

Citation: Rishi Manchanda, Kathryn Jantz, Sadena Thevarajah. Compass for Health Equity Transformation. HealthBegins. Los Angeles, May 2023.

©HealthBegins 2023. All rights reserved.

System Level

GOAL

Drive institutional transformation and culture change to create a more effective, just, equitable, and inclusive institution.

KEY ACTIVITIES

• Improve culture of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging

• Improve shared knowledge, understanding, motivation and accountability for health equity
• Develop workforce and leadership competencies to guide multi-level transformation
• Strengthen organizational capabilities (internal leadership, governance structures & data systems) for health equity
• Remove institutional drivers of healthcare and social inequities impacting patients and employees

Societal Level

GOAL

Help replace social policies and structures that cause ongoing harms, and support policies that promote healing and justice.

KEY ACTIVITIES

• Expand investments and support for structural interventions that strengthen public health & expand access to primary care for historically marginalized populations
• Expand investments and support for structural interventions and coalitions that aim to reduce health inequities and advance social justice

• Strengthen and support equitable, community-centered governance and accountability of healthcare institutions
• Improve civic engagement and enfranchisement among historically marginalized employees, patients, and residents.
• Advocate for laws and policies that dismantle structural drivers of inequities and that promote health equity and racial justice.

Programs & Care Level

GOAL

Surpass performance goals for health care equity & social needs for patient populations

KEY ACTIVITIES

• Improve completeness and quality of demographic data (REaL, SOGI, social needs, ability, income, geography)
• Disaggregate data and stratify outcomes by populations and by place
• Embed equity-focused care models and continuous improvement into quality, safety, and all service lines
• Improve equity-focused integration of care (health, social services, behavioral health) and address social drivers of health care inequities
• Remove program-level contributors or drivers of health care inequities impacting patients

Ecosystem Level

GOAL

Help build a high-performing, just, and equitablecross-sector ecosystem for health in your community

KEY ACTIVITIES

• Improve adequacy and performance of networks supporting equitable integration of health care, social sector, and public health services
• Shift to an impact investment approach to measure value and manage spend
• Equitably pool and distribute rewards among partners and reallocate resources to address local social determinants of health equity
• Improve cross-sector data sharing, infrastructure, and governance
• Help remove social drivers of healthcare, health, and social inequities among local residents