The COVID-19 pandemic has brought diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the need to tackle these issues in healthcare more closely. In view of this, hospitals and health systems are implementing initiatives to improve the diversity of workforce practices.

Below, healthcare leaders explain how their organizations are measurably improving diversity.

Editor’s Note: Answers have been edited slightly for clarity and style.

B. Lee Green, PhD. Vice President of Diversity, Public Relations and Strategic Communications at Moffitt Cancer Center (Tampa, Florida): One of the key actions Moffitt takes is to involve all leaders in the work of diversity, equity and inclusion. Rather than having this work belong only to our DCI team, we are focusing on a strategy of shared responsibility. We call it shared responsibility corporate equity.

This will be measured by adding equity and inclusion to the overall institutional scorecard. This keeps equity and inclusion at the forefront.

Lisette Martinez. Executive Vice President and Director of Diversity at Jefferson Health and Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia): We have set ourselves a corporate goal at Jefferson Health of reaching 30% of under-represented minority leaders by 2025. That goal, approved with the support of our Board of Directors, is an incredible commitment from Jefferson.

We are measuring this target in every division of Jefferson Health, as well as at Thomas Jefferson University. A quarterly report is provided to all presidents to monitor their progress in achieving this goal. In addition, we have initiated a diversity recruitment strategy, developed by the Diversity and Inclusion office in collaboration with the human resources department. This is a streamlined and collaborative process of how we ensure access to our workforce.

Kevin Myatt. Senior Vice President and Director of Human Resources at Yale New Haven, Connecticut Health System: The Yale New Haven Health System has been successful in developing a strong core of female managers across our organization. However, the percentage of women of color decreases to the next level – director – which is the initial role of executive leadership. To address this, our leadership team is committed to increasing the number of people of color in director roles with a focus on increasing the number of women of color in these roles.

Our progress will be monitored by the management team and reviewed twice a year as part of our talent review process.

Angela Talton. Senior Vice President and Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at City of Hope (Duarte, CA): We take a strategic and holistic approach to infuse diversity, equity and inclusion into our daily operations by focusing on our staff, patients and the community at large. City of Hope was founded on the principles of inclusion; we are building on this as a cornerstone and reinforcing that message with situational inclusion training for all managers. Building on our investment in unconscious bias training last year, we are redoubling our efforts to equip leaders with tools, actionable techniques and changes in behavioral mindsets.

City of Hope provides managers with programs and initiatives that will strengthen their awareness, understanding and strategic direction on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion. We believe that the diversity of cultural backgrounds, experience, perspectives and approaches at all levels and in all contexts is essential for our mission to transform the future of health, to develop innovations in research and to provide the best equitable cancer and diabetes care to patients.

Michael Wright. Vice President of Diversity and Health Equity at Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, NY): At Northwell Health, we are committed to embedding and upholding the principles of diversity, inclusion and health equity through our workforce practices, including developing a workforce -Works culturally sensitive to meet and respond to the diverse needs of our team members, patients and communities served. We achieve this through our recently launched Inclusion Academy, where team members can access education and training initiatives related to cultural competency, unconscious bias, inclusive leadership, microaggressions, training. spectators, allies, health literacy and language access programs.

Our resource groups for company employees are also integral to achieving our workforce diversity strategy. Our BERGS were created to ensure a diverse pool of talent at all levels of leadership and to help us build a trusted partnership with the communities we serve. Our BERGs are a powerful voice in our organization and help promote a culture of inclusion at Northwell and are integral to the development of diversity and inclusion education, engagement in community outreach and initiatives. broader commercials.

Our engagement survey is one way to measure improvement. We specifically look at the BERG indicators and other diversity perception issues measured by the survey.