We are pleased to announce that Methodist North Hospital has been selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to participate in a new effort to improve the quality and equality of cardiac care delivered in hospitals to racial and ethnic minority populations. The Aligning Forces for Quality: Equity Quality Improvement Collaborative (Equity QI Collaborative) will identify and test ways for hospitals to improve the quality of their cardiac care, while also identifying and reducing any racial and ethnic disparities.

 

"Because we serve a large population of African-American and Hispanic patients, we were eager to participate in this effort," said Michael Ugwueke, CEO, Methodist North Hospital. "Nothing is more important to us than providing high-quality care to every patient we treat. We're proud of our record of care, and look forward to sharing our expertise with other hospitals nationwide and learning from them as well."

 

Nationally, disparities in healthcare have been well documented. While there are many theories, the reasons for the disparities are not well understood. The first step Methodist North will take for the equity initiative is to record race, ethnicity, and language information on all patients, review quality data, then work to correct any disparities that may be discovered.

 

"Healthcare systems need better tools to address racial and ethnic gaps in care," said Renee Frazier, executive director of HMCT. "We need information on "what is" before we know "what should be."

 

The Healthy Memphis Common Table will work to benchmark the hospitals' successes and spread the new quality improvement innovations across Memphis.

 

"We need to make sure that everyone in Memphis has access to high-quality healthcare—that is, the right care at the right time," Frazier maintained. "And we're working with many people in the community to achieve this goal. We want everyone to take charge for better health."

 

Please join me in congratulating them on being selected to be part of this imperative effort. To read more about this improvement collaborative, visit www.healthymemphis.org or www.rwjf.org.