Socially Determined: The Healthcare Executive’s Role in Health Equity

While federal regulators and accrediting bodies have championed national health equity initiatives, the COVID-19 pandemic further underscored systemic health disparities and inspired action. Socially Determined explores how healthcare and public health organizations continue to work toward equitable, person-centered care. This book provides healthcare executives with an overview of the essential elements of health equity and explains the relationship between value-based care, healthcare quality, and health equity. The book’ s core themes are the crucial role of community investments in improving the economic, social, and environmental realities of marginalized populations and the need for public-private partnerships to tackle issues at scale. Topics covered include new efforts to collect reliable data on social determinants of health and build a health analytics infrastructure to benchmark, monitor, and track progress toward health equity Mandates and accreditation requirements from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Joint Commission, the National Committee for Quality Assurance, and the Public Health Accreditation Board are woven throughout the chapters.

Kina L. White, DrPH, MHSA, FACHE, is director of the Office of Community Health Improvement at the Mississippi State Department of Health and adjunct faculty at Belhaven University. Dr. White is ACHE Regent for Mississippi and serves on the board of advisors for the UsAgainstAlzheimer’ s Center for Brain Health Equity, the New York University Grossman School of Medicine BOLD Public Health Center of Excellence on Early Detection of Dementia, and the Global Alzheimer’ s Platform Foundation Inclusive Research Initiative Advisory Committee. Shawn Rossi, DHA, FACHE, is the vice president of communications and member engagement for the Mississippi Hospital Association. She also serves on the boards of directors for the Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency, the Mississippi Public Health Association, the Mississippi Healthcare Executives, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Health Related Professions Alumni Association, and she is a member of the University of Southern Mississippi’ s Community Health Advisory Board. Dr. Rossi was listed by the Mississippi Business Journal as one of their Top 40 Under 40. Karin VanZant, MPA, is the vice president of national social determinants of health and health equity at Clearlink Partners and an adjunct professor at Antioch University. She is a founding member of the national policy coalition Aligning for Health and a planning member of RWJ funded Partnership to Align Social Care. Previously, she led the national strategy for social determinants of health at CareSource and was the co-founder and executive director of Think Tank, Inc., which connects individuals who have personal experience in poverty with leaders working toward solutions.

Chapter 1 - Why Me? Chapter 2 - What Does Healthcare Quality Have to Do with Health Equity? Chapter 3 - What is Healthcare Value? Chapter 4 - Why Screen for Social Needs? Chapter 5 - It All Matters: How Do Race, Place, and Space Influence Health Disparities? Chapter 6 - How Are Regulation and Accreditation Handling Health Equity? Chapter 7 - Are You Spending or Investing in Community Health? Chapter 8 - Why Is Community Collaboration Important? Chapter 9 - How Should I Talk About Health Equity? Chapter 10 - How Do Health Equity Issues Affect Patient Experience? Chapter 11 - Can We Measure What Matters? Chapter 12 - How Do I Build the Business Case? Chapter 13 - Where Do We Go From Here?