The pandemic through a spotlight
on serious inequities that are
suffered by some populations,
Black Hispanics and indigenous Americans,
for example, suffered a three
to four times higher rate of
infection and death from COVID.
That's Dr. Wando and Yoko and
she was giving that Ted talk.
She is the chief HealthEquity
officer at Providence Swedish ad
she joins me now to talk more in
depth about health inequities.
And what Providence Swedish
is doing about them?
So you from what I understand,
the first Chief HealthEquity,
officer of Providence Swedish,
What does it mean and why
is this rule so important?
Thank you for having me to
have this conversation today.
We've known for many years,
decades actually,
that certain populations don't experience
our healthcare in the same way.
They're underserved marginalized
populations For whom?
The access, the experience and
outcomes significantly different
than from the majority populati.
And in the wake of the pandemic,
that really was a forcing
function for a lot of things.
One of them was that the data started to
show really clearly to everyone beyond
the healthcare system that there is a gap.
And there are people for whom what we're
trying to do and serve best is ,
you know, landing in the same w.
And so Providence Swedish made
a decision that they needed a
clinical leader to really focusn
what the way that our healthcare
was being experienced and receid
by the populations that we serv.
That requires understanding thea
that says who are we serving and how is it,
how we serving them, how,
how are the outcomes for them?
Do they have the same access to?
Do they go through our systems
in the same way?
Do they have the same results
that everyone else is having and
really if you think about healt.
You know, the impact as a whole,
without really looking at subpopulations,
you might think that we're
doing really great.
But you know,
the HealthEquity lens really asks us to
breakdown the populations we serve and say,
well,
we're doing great across the bo.
But for this group,
what does it look like for that group?
What does it look like?
And that's what my role is.
And that's what is important in
creating a healthy society as a whole
and having somebody on the insi.
I mean, we've known for years the disparities
and black women in birthing rat.
But like you said, the pandemic,
I mean, it really made people
stand up and take notice and sa,
Oh my gosh, this is a real prob.
Tell me more about what are some
of the other inequities look
like and who do they affect?
I'll start with who do they aff?
Because sometimes people think that it's
a biology problem because peoplo
have disparities in health outcome tend
to be minority population, so b,
indigenous and other people of color,
Latin X. Populations, but also people
who are marginalized for other reasons,
such as the LGBTQI population,
who may not feel comfortable
accessing care in the same way.
And really, what it it's not a biological.
Issue.
It's an issue of other societal inequities.
So do those people that have a higher
rate of poverty, they have a hir
rate of different education, you know,
different access to healthcare.
And in our country,
healthcare tends to be linked to employment.
And so when you have a higher
rate of unemployment and things
like that in those communities,
then it starts to be like a proxy for it.
Yeah, but really they're not biological
differences because even for Afn
Americans who are at higher socioeconomic.
Status,
they are still experienced
some of those inequities.
And so there's a lot more invold
in how these inequities come to.
They really are a function of historic
structural racism in our societ.
And so this is what we start to
uncover as we look at our data,
listen to stories and understand
really who we're serving and
how we're serving them.
So you it's your job to look
at all that data and then say,
OK, what do we do with it?
And how do we serve the
people best that we can?
What what are some of the ways
that Swedish is addressing this?
So I I say it's my job to really
bring everyone's attention to
it. There's a lot, right?
Yeah. And the good thing about
Healthcare is that you're workig
with a group of people whose mission,
whose purpose is to bring their
best selves and to help people.
And so, you know,
when you show people data and say, you know,
I know that your intention is to to do well.
But look at what this looks lik.
They they come along and their
partners and they say.
What can we do differently?
How can we partner with you?
And so I look across our
different service lines,
different partners and look at
different data sources and see .
So with our primary care partne,
for instance,
we look at the metrics that we measure,
which we have to measure
right on a regular basis.
And we're like, oh,
we look at how we perform for hypertension.
But when we filter it by race,
ethnicity and language,
we find out that for the African
American population, there's a .
We don't have as good
control of hypertension.
So I share it with my partners
in that space and say, hey,
look at what we're seeing.
What can we do differently here?
Likewise with our Cancer Instit,
for instance,
we look at African Americans or Latinx
populations who may not have asd
access to screening early mammography.
And we say,
hey look at what our data is showing.
What can we do differently?
And so we go,
we come alongside,
we have navigators who in langue
can connect us to the communityd
we work with our Cancer Institu,
mobile mammogram van and we go out to
the community where those communities
live and and try to improve accs
and and what I love that you do there,
once you're out there,
it's not just OK here, we've got this.
But we give you the next steps as well, yes.
I can't tell you how grateful
I am for getting to talk.
I mean, you have so much informn
and so much knowledge, and I just can't
wait to talk to you more about .
So I appreciate every moment
of time you've given us today.
All right, Well,
For more information on the work
that Providence Swedish is doing
to improve health equities,
you can just go to the website
on your screen.
That is the Office of HealthEqu,
Diversity and Inclusion.
So check that out right there.