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Title: Serving a diversity of patients
Val Prevish
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Helping hospitals serve the needs of culturally diverse patients is the mission of a new company founded by a former Procter & Gamble marketing manager and five partners.
Larry James, president and CEO of the Center for Multicultural Competence in Healthcare Organizations based in Blue Ash and a former P&G manager, said he doesn't know of other consultant businesses that offer the same kind of assistance.
"Culture has a significant impact on the quality of care most patients receive," said James. "We help health-care organizations reach a higher level of understanding (about culture) and then apply that understanding to a greater diversity of patients."
The process the center uses begins with an assessment of the hospital's perceived effectiveness in the community and ends with a training period for managers and employees.
A group of health-care professionals from the center analyzes such things as the hospital's forms and policies, how staff members interact with patients and what special facilities are in place to help patients with unique cultural needs, James said.
Changes the center recommends include such things as signs in several languages, widening aisles for obese patients or changing admission forms.
Ruby Crawford-Hemphill, assistant chief nursing officer for University Hospital in Corryville, is working with the center to help one of the hospital's critical-care units better meet the hospital's standards in the areas of respect, integrity, teamwork and excellence.
The unit going through the assessment process is made up of a group of culturally diverse staff members who regularly handle high-stress workloads with critically ill patients and their families, she said.
The unit has unique demographics among its staff and patients, Hemphill said.
"ICU involves trauma and not a lot of happy times," said Hemphill. "We wanted to help empower our staff to get patients and their families what they need during those difficult times."
The center, which James founded 18 months ago, is poised to take advantage of a growing national market to provide hospitals with advice to help them comply with an increasing level of government and community demands for sensitivity to diverse cultures.
James expects that a growing need for the type of services it offers should bring the company increasing revenues over the next several years, starting with $1.5 million by the end of 2007 and more than double that by the end of 2008.
James pointed to statistics collected by the U.S. Census Bureau that show the diversity of the U.S. population is increasing at a fast pace. The Census Bureau predicts that non-white ethnic groups will represent one out of three Americans by 2016 and that in the next 50 years multiculturalism will become mainstream.
Besides ethnicity, hospitals also must care for patients of diverse ages, body types and religious backgrounds.
James said businesses and health-care organizations that ignore those needs will be left behind in the next 20 years, while those that embrace them will thrive.
"Greater cultural competence builds a higher level of trust in the community," James said. "Trust leads to better (patient relationships) and to better clinical outcomes, which means lower costs for the hospital."
In addition to the financial benefits, hospitals are compelled to increase their culture sensitivity because of U.S. government regulations that require hospitals to offer specific services, such as interpreters.
The company helps hospitals comply with 14 standards developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health.
Jewell Lightner, corporate director of diversity for Flower Hospital in Sylvania near Toledo, said after hearing James speak about his company's services at a health-care meeting, she was eager to have Flower Hospital assessed by the center.
"When I heard that there was a company that could assess the ability of our hospital to meet the (cultural and linguistic appropriate services) ... standards, I was anxious to have them help us," she said.
Kevin Webb, president of Flower Hospital, said the process, which the hospital completed last August, was valuable in helping it identify gaps in services and to benchmark itself against other hospitals on the quality of the care it offered to patients from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
"One surprise we found was an inconsistent use of interpreters," said Webb. "We realized we needed to tighten up our interpreting services."
E-mail vprevish@fuse.net
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The Center for Multicultural Competence
in Healthcare Organizations
4555 Lake Forest Drive - 650 Westlake Center
Cincinnati, OH 45242
P: 513.563.3004 - F: 513.563.3011
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