What We Do

Advancing Health Equity

The Inclusion SCORECARD for Population Health™ is an interactive on-line dashboard of best practices that health systems can use to address health care inequities, organized into four distinct focus areas:

The Scorecard inspires greater coordinated and systematic approaches to address patients in diverse communities. It includes key data to collect about patients and the communities where they live and work. It identifies strategies to engage community partners in healthcare coordination, upstream social determinants of health or health education. As more health systems adopt new reimbursement models and strive for value based care, a significant paradigm shift in healthcare must take place. The Scorecard plays an integral role in a site’s effort to achieve the Quadruple Aim: better care, better patient experience, lowered costs and improved provider experience. Healthcare is no longer solely about what happens inside a facility—health outcomes are inextricably linked to the social determinants of health, culturally effective care, patient engagement and community resiliency. Download the Executive Summary for more information.

Check out our User Guide for the Inclusion Scorecard for Population Health in our Health Equity Best Practices Newsletter. Subscribe on LinkedIn.

Key phases of implementation

The Board of Trustees of a hospital are essential in the journey to advance health equity. We encourage boards to complete our Board Health Equity Readiness Survey to determine what specific assistance members may need to understand and align on the work to be done. Impact4Health can provide executive education on health equity, the role unconscious bias plays in medicine, and on understanding culturally effective care during a meeting or at an off-site.

A member of the Board and an Executive leader sponsors a Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Council to oversee implementation of the current state analysis using the Scorecard. The members of the Council can be other senior leaders, staff, subject matter experts and community members that identify key best practices to review. Impact4Health can train internal staff to conduct the analysis or conduct the analysis on key items.

The assessment process in the Scorecard includes identifying a target future state for key activities. The summary can then be integrated into an existing strategic plan or serve as a standalone strategy. Most systems identify key data that will be collected to track health inequities and new activities to support a culture of inclusion that aligns with their vision of being a provider and employer of choice.

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Healthcare Staff Development

The LEADS Program

Impact4Health designs and facilitates the Leadership Executive Advancement Development with Sponsors—LEADS—to support health systems that are eager to attract and retain the best talent. LEADS is specifically designed to support high value talent that may be the first generation professionals—a unique subset of staff at all levels who can benefit from learning more about executive presence, the growth mindset, managing up, effective communication with the C-Suite and how to manage the Impostor Syndrome. What makes LEADS unique is that participants are matched with senior leaders serving as sponsors. For more information on this program, download the one page flier. For a summary on how organizations can develop the next generation of leaders, download the American Hospital Association Trustee Insights article Dr. Hernandez co-authored.

Inclusive Leadership

The Inclusive Leader Workshop is a facilitator lead session that draws a link between inclusion, engagement, productivity, retention and health equity. It can be offered as an independent half day or full day workshop or as part of an internal Leadership Academy. Participants may also complete the Inclusive Leader self-profile or the Inclusive Leader 360 prior to attending and receive a 30 page interpretive guide featuring key ways to develop the 5 dimensions of an inclusive leader. The facilitator lead workshop emphasizes vignettes or case studies that can be applied to both clinical and administrative staff.

Q+CARE Quality + Culturally Appropriate Response for Equity™

Q+CARE is a program to raise awareness about unconscious bias with physicians in clinical settings. This program is customized to include reference and integration of a health system mission and values. Key strategies for mitigating unconscious bias in daily practice are emphasized. Vignettes and case studies are used to reinforce learning. Customized versions of this course have been used at health systems for Continuing Medical Education credits (.75 for a 50 minute session).

Health Equity Rounds

Health Equity Rounds bring health equity discussions into everyday practice. Dr. Italo Brown partners with Impact4Health to deliver a 2-hour workshop on creating a Safe SPACE for Health Equity Rounds. This program includes an overview of how bias of all forms impact clinical decisions, the patient experience, and health outcomes.

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Executive Education on Inclusion

Inclusive Leader 360: Making the Unconscious Conscious

The Inclusive Leader Executive Program is a comprehensive program that combines coaching, self-guided exercises and facilitator lead leader dialogues that are completed over the course of a 3 month timeline. The Inclusive Leader 360 is the only product of its kind on the market and is completed at the beginning of the program. Executives receive their results as in a traditional 360 using scores by peers, direct reports and their boss. In addition the IL360 provides results by gender, generation, and ethnicity to pinpoint how their unconscious bias may be experienced among diverse colleagues and staff. Individual coaching and leader dialogues support an awareness of engaging diverse individuals effectively, having difficult conversations about race and racism, and how organizational excellence is linked to a culture of inclusion where everyone feels they belong. Further attention is given to privilege, anti-racism, and the importance of sponsoring diverse individuals.

The Inclusive Leader Self Profile

The Self Profile contains the same items as the IL360 but is completed only by the individual leaders. This tool can be integrated into an existing training program or to supplement other training that Impact4Health customizes for your team. Some of the sample content that can be created includes:

• Reducing Unconscious Bias

• Creating a Culture of Inclusion

• Engaging as Allies

• Anti-Racism and Bias Interrupters

• Power and Privilege for Sponsoring Diverse Individuals

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Community engagement

Community engagement, patient outreach and education are all key components of effective outreach for health systems, public health departments, and community clinics. Impact4Health brings unique expertise in order to address diverse patient populations and their concerns for quality care. We partner with your senior leadership team and public relations staff to design a full range of solutions that support effective dialog, issue management, and strategic planning.

Some of the activities we have been asked to support include:

Regional Collaboratives on Population Health

A number of hospital associations have seen the benefit of creating learning collaboratives between health systems, community health centers, FQHCs, health plans, and faith based organizations that serve their patients. These learning collaboratives can be the ideal way to align on key efforts to address the social drivers of health and work strategically to meet the needs of patients that have historically been marginalized. Among those systems serving a large region, these collaboratives can be laser focused on just the key communities they serve so that there is a concerted effort to address significant unmet health needs. For more information, see our one page brochure.

Community Advisory Councils

Impact4Health partners with institutions to identify key sectors of a community that need to be engaged in patient education, community programs or key issue management. Once members of your advisory council are identified, we will provide on-boarding support to insure participants have productive meetings and address community concerns. In addition we provide ongoing meeting facilitation and strategic planning.

Patient and Family Advisory Councils

Many systems seeking to engage diverse patient populations are finding Patient and Family Advisory Councils bring the “voice of the consumer” to important dialogue on service delivery strategies, care coordination needs or program design. These Councils can play a central role in providing patient centered care. Impact4Health can support these efforts with tailored outreach to recruit key participants, orientation for staff and participants, ongoing facilitation and document the success of the Councils.

Patient Outreach

Identifying key patients that need to be served is a first step in serving diverse communities. Once identified, engaging them in key programs to address their needs is often more of a challenge. Impact4Health can partner with your staff to identify the best inroads to key communities and develop the right messaging to support your key initiatives. Careful attention is given to language, culture, and community members that can partner to effectively reach key populations with strategies to support disease management (i.e. diabetes, asthma, behavioral health, or cancer screenings).

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Wellbeing and the Workplace

The choices we make and that others make for us impact our health and wellbeing each day. A growing number of employers are recognizing this link and have begun exploring how to ensure work routines, policies, or programs support employee wellbeing—especially in light of mounting evidence that employee health and mental health continue to struggle during and after the pandemic.

The Leader’s Role in Employee Wellness

In response to increased workplace stress, lost productivity and high turnover rates, organizational leaders must make integrated wellbeing and belonging initiatives a high priority using culturally effective strategies for all employees, at all levels of the organization. The good news is that encouraging employee wellbeing can be integrated into effective leadership at every level—from team leads to the c-suite.

Our Approach

Impact4Health has developed a unique approach to inspire a dynamic approach to wellbeing and belonging at work that focuses on the root causes of burnout and workplace stress. ChoicePoints4Health™ (CP4H) centers on building an awareness of the choices that we make for ourselves and the choices our leaders and organizations make that impact our engagement, productivity, retention and innovation. The program then highlights meaningful steps for leaders to take that recognize and foster employee awareness of the ChoicePoints4Health™ that are linked to healthy eating, movement, social connection and mindfulness.

Our Core Message for Participants

Employees—when given the opportunity to create their own work routines to manage the pace of work, engage in mind-body training, build a sense of community with others and participate in some outside activity that gives their life meaning—are more likely to be healthier and effective at work. ChoicePoints4Health™ (CP4H) includes leader dialogues and intact team facilitated discussions, surrounded by an employee inspired story-telling campaign that features unique ways each person is achieving physical and emotional wellbeing and what inspires a sense of belonging.

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