About Health Equity and Inclusion
Disparate health outcomes for minorities, individuals experiencing homelessness, and other subsets of California’s population are the result of historic and systemic inequalities that persist today, and it has risen to the level of a public health crisis in California. Unequal access to health care and health resources, as well as unequal and damaging environmental conditions due to race, socioeconomic status, and other factors is untenable in a just and healthy society. Some facts*:
Black Californians have the highest rates of new prostate, colorectal, and lung cancer cases, and the highest death rates for breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer.
About one in five Latinx Californians report not having a usual source of care and difficulty finding a specialist.
Californians who are Native American and Alaska Native, as well as Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, are less likely to report having a checkup within the past year than other racial/ethnic groups.
*Source: California Health Care Foundation
Ensuring every Californian receives equitable, high-quality care requires long-term systemic solutions. California’s hospitals are on the front lines of mitigating health inequities. Within their communities, hospitals examine and address social determinants of health — factors such as housing instability, access to healthy foods, and community violence — that significantly affect health risks and outcomes.
Hospitals also continually work to improve patient experience and outcomes through a variety of initiatives, including a statewide maternal health quality collaborative; data collection and analysis on race, ethnicity, language preference, and other sociodemographic data; cultural competency training; increasing diversity in leadership and governance; and improving and strengthening community partnerships.
But hospitals alone cannot eliminate health disparities. It will take systemic reform, paired with broad partnerships across all segments of California’s communities, to break from the status quo.
HASC, CLC Appoint Supplier Diversity Committee Leaders
HASC and Communities Lifting Communities (CLC) are pleased to announce the appointment of Andrew Kwok, Cedars-Sinai, as chair of the Supplier Diversity Committee. He will serve along with new co-chairs Audrey Chang, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and Flora Mayer, City of Hope. Kwok serves as the associate director of supply chain diversity at Cedars-Sinai Health […]
Implementing your DE&I Initiatives: Cross-industry Best Practices
Communities Lifting Communities (CLC) and HASC invite members to a virtual roundtable on best practices in implementing diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives across industries. In this session, leaders from Boston Scientific, UKG and Walmart will share insights on the evolving methods within their organizations that drive efficiency, innovation and better outcomes. By understanding these […]
Supplier Diversity: A View from Partnering Businesses
In our latest Supplier Diversity Initiative podcast, Ivan Garcia, Calidad Medical, and Carlie Elwell, Servicon, offer their view from the supplier side. The two share with HASC’s Adam Blackstone about doing business with hospitals and the challenges they face as diverse suppliers. Garcia and Elwell highlight the importance of educating hospitals about Assembly Bill 962 […]
CLC, HASC Staff Honored for Supplier Diversity Work
Communities Lifting Communities (CLC) and HASC are proud to announce that CLC’s Claudia Pacheco, health equity program manager, and HASC’s Vetannie Morton, coordinator of diversity, health equity and inclusion programs, received an inaugural Healthcare Purchasing News 40 Under 40 Award. The two were honored for their work with CLC’s supplier diversity initiative. The effort aims […]
MLK Community Healthcare’s Cultural Diversity Initiative
In this podcast, Susan Harrington, Communities Lifting Communities, speaks with Signe Gilbert and Rachel Villanueva, MLK Community Healthcare, about their groundbreaking initiative on cultural diversity in the workplace. Through workforce development, the program aims to create a culturally aligned workforce.” This means the medical center is “employing those that live in our community and helping […]
Supplier Diversity Connection Engages 125-plus Vendors, Purchasers
Cedars-Sinai and Huntington Health, a Cedars-Sinai affiliate, recently hosted Huntington Health’s first Supplier Diversity Connection mixer. Held in partnership with Communities Lifting Communities (CLC) and the Hospital Association of Southern California (HASC), the event drew over 125 diverse-owned vendors, hospital purchasers and leaders, and other supporters. The mixer began with a bingo icebreaker, and the […]
CLC Hosts Transformational Health Equity Events
In the last week of June, Communities Lifting Communities (CLC) sponsored a series of health equity events in partnership with HASC. In line with CLC’s vision, the gatherings aimed to promote health care system transformation, reduce inequities and improve community health. Diverse Vendor Fair On June 20, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA) hosted a […]
Building Bridges: Advancing Supplier Diversity in Health Care
2024 Supplier Diversity Conference Quiet Cannon901 Via San ClementeMontebello, CA 90640 Online registration for the Communities Lifting Communities (CLC) fall hospital supplier diversity conference is now closed. Member hospital registration will be available at the door at a 50% discount. Supplier registration is now full. Thank you to all of our business partners who signed […]
HASC Partners with AffirmedRx, PBC, to Enhance Health Care Access and Affordability
Contact: Katie Marks, [email protected] HASC is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with AffirmedRx, PBC, a leading provider of transparent pharmacy benefit management (PBM) services, to further its mission of improving health care access and affordability for the communities it serves. This partnership between HASC and AffirmedRx underscores their shared vision of a health care […]
Hospital Supplier Diversity Initiative Podcast, Part 3
Overview Part 3 of the Supplier Diversity podcast series features Audrey Chang, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, and Flora Mayer, City of Hope. Our guests discuss how they’re helping their companies develop more inclusive purchasing practices by building relationships with diverse-owned businesses. Chang and Mayer are active in Communities Lifting Communities and HASC’s Hospital Supplier […]