At last week’s GNYHA virtual member meeting, Christina Cordero, PhD, MPH, Project Director for Health Standards Development in The Joint Commission’s (TJC) Division of Healthcare Quality Evaluation, detailed how hospitals and health systems can meet TJC’s new standard to reduce health care disparities.
The new standard helps hospitals address the foundational elements they must establish to advance their health care equity programs, Dr. Cordero said. She described the new standard’s six elements of performance—designate a leader, assess health-related social needs, identify health care disparities, develop an action plan, make improvements, and inform stakeholders—and highlighted each requirement’s intent, implementation strategies, and TJC resources designed to help. Her presentation also noted TJC’s proposed optional hospital Health Care Equity Advanced Certification Program, which would recognize hospitals that strive for excellence in providing equitable care that aligns with TJC’s new health care disparity requirements. A recording of the briefing can be found here.
This briefing was part of a GNYHA initiative to help member hospitals meet the new health equity-related measures finalized by TJC and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inpatient prospective payment system final rule requirements. On October 27, GNYHA held a briefing that reviewed and offered strategies to meet TJC and CMS health disparity requirements.