Making Progress

Health Equity Checklists

Making Progress

Once your organization has some fundamentals in place (see checklist for “Getting Started”), there is an opportunity to reinforce and expand efforts to improve the delivery of equitable care.

The following checklist is intended to spur planning and dialogue and help your organization continue to improve processes and policies that support the delivery of equitable care. Organizations interested in conducting a more formal assessment may find it useful to consider one or more of organizational assessment tools found in Must Have Tools.

Our organization....

	Integrates information about patients' race, ethnicity, preferred language, educational level, and other characteristics that can lead to lower quality care, into medical records.		See How The Health Research and Educational Trust Disparities Toolkit
	Documents and monitors the provision of interpreter and language services to individuals with language barriers (e.g., do not speak English, Deaf) to improve care.		See How Speaking Together Toolkit
	Has ongoing training for staff on how to overcome barriers in accessing and using services and care for individuals with language barriers.
	Uses forms and patient educational materials designed for low health literacy and limited English proficiency populations.		See How Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit
	Stratifies patient satisfaction data by key demographics (e.g., preferred language) and disseminates the results to promote service improvement.
	Provides ongoing training to all staff on culturally and linguistically responsive care.		See How Search for on-line trainings in Must Have Tools
	Stratifies quality improvement data by demographic characteristics (e.g., race) to identify health care disparities.		See How Creating Equity Reports: A Guide for Hospitals
	Analyzes medical errors to identify root causes, including language and literacy barriers.
	Actively seeks community input in planning and developing health services.
	Adopts an organizational committment to providing the highest possible care to all of our patients with a focus on equity.		See How Improving Quality and Achieving Equity: A Guide for Hospital Leaders

Looking for next steps? Go to the Reaching Milestones checklist.