bi3 has awarded a one-year $500,000 grant to HOC Navigators (Hospice of Cincinnati) to build the cultural competency of staff and create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture; and to listen, learn from, and respond to Black communities regarding barriers to palliative and hospice care.
According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, 82% of Medicare patients who used palliative and hospice care in 2018 were White, while 8% were Black and 6.7% were Hispanic.
“We are committed to understanding and improving health equity in advanced illness and end-of-life care for our Black and African American communities in Greater Cincinnati by listening to patients and families, increasing awareness and growing a team that provides culturally competent care. Over time, this may enable us to serve more Black/African American patients, particularly those with heart disease, resulting in improved access to advanced illness and end-of-life care in the Cincinnati Black/African American community,” said Gayle Mattson, President & CEO of Hospice of Cincinnati.
This program, made possible by a grant from bi3, will support HOC Navigator’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategic priorities to improve health equity in advanced illness and end-of-life care for the Black community.
HOC Navigators will seek to better understand its patient population and increase the cultural competency of team members through the following activities:
- Collecting and analyzing REAL (Race, Ethnicity and Language) data for hospice and home palliative care patients
- Assessing the experiences of internal (team members) and external (community members) stakeholders at HOC Navigators
- Increasing the diversity of the HOC workforce, Board of Trustees, and volunteers; and leveraging TriHealth’s BOLD (Building Our Leadership Diversity) Program, a leadership development program designed primarily for underrepresented team members to help prepare them for the next stage in their careers.
- Conducting implicit bias training and education with HOC team members, Board of Trustees and volunteers of HOC
Work related to the first phase of the Diversity Equity & Inclusion Grant for Health Equity Work is expected to occur April 2022 – March 2023.