As strides are made to address inequities and disparities in healthcare, governing and regulatory bodies including The Joint Commission (TJC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have created guidelines, benchmarks and policies that evolve over time.
The MHA Keystone Center recently published A Guide and Action Plan to Integrating CMS and TJC Health Equity and Health Disparities Requirements on the MHA Community website to clarify the latest requirements and provide actionable strategies for implementing health equity programming in a hospital or health system setting.
The action plan utilizes quality improvement frameworks and streamlines the requirements into five steps: define, analyze, design, implement and monitor.
The steps include best practices for establishing and maintaining a health equity program in compliance with the new requirements. Adhering to these steps will help organizations align health equity initiatives with existing quality improvement activities and ensure a cohesive and comprehensive approach to providing equitable care.
The intended audience for this resource includes designated health equity leader(s) and the multidisciplinary team(s) responsible for developing and implementing health equity programming.
Members with questions about the guide can contact the MHA Keystone Center.