N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 9
A
t the nation's third largest healthcare organization,
Kaiser Permanente, nearly 60% of the 217,000 staff
members are people of color. Three-quarters of all
employees, nearly half of the executive team, and more
than a third of the physicians are women.
At the brand-new 142-hospital CommonSpirit Health network, the
result of a merger between CHI and Dignity Health, the CEO and the
COO are both African American men.
At New York State's Northwell Health, following a concerted effort
lasting almost a decade to promote equity, diversity and inclusion, half
of the 68,000 employees are minorities and 72% are women.
For these facilities and many others, including my own, diversity
and inclusion is more than just an issue of right and wrong. It's a busi-
ness strategy — a way to reach out to reflect and attract the members
of 140 cultures currently represented in the U.S., and to tap into the
creativity afforded by different perspectives and different worldviews.
How diverse is your organization? How well do your employees
understand, accept and value differences among people of different
skin colors, genders, ages, religions, disabilities and sexual orienta-
It's Time to
Embrace
Healthcare
Diversity
Diversity is not just an
important moral issue
— it's an existential
economic one.
Shamayne D. Braman, EdM
Minneapolis, Minn.
