Kevin Mahoney, the CEO of Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania Health System, spoke at the Milken Institute's Future of Health Summit on how hospitals can take the lessons learned from COVID-19 to create equitable care, according to a June 22 taping.
When the pandemic began, employees would ask Mr. Mahoney how to stay safe and keep their families safe. He told his staff to stay 6 feet apart from each other at home. Puzzled by his advice, they would say that might be possible at Mr. Mahoney's larger home but is not possible in their home.
He thought he was conveying confidence from leadership, but really he was showing he didn't understand the environment where many of his employees and patients lived, he said.
"If you look around the medical profession, particularly hospital CEOs, we are all white," he said. "We are predominantly white males."
For hospital CEOs to become more in touch with their community, he began matching executives in a reverse mentorship program that enlisted the help of community health workers.
It spotlighted the care Black patients were getting was of lower quality than their white counterparts.
"Black people died during COVID because their hospitals are underfunded. COVID is a locally treated disease," he said. "Those hospitals are underfunded nationwide."
To improve patient care for patients regardless of their race or economic background, he said funding should shift away from safety-net hospitals and move toward community health and safety-net ambulatory services. Increased Medicaid reimbursement could improve the quality of care at hospitals in Black communities by improving their funding.
"We people in privilege, people in power, [need to] lean in and talk to the federal government and others about increasing Medicaid payments," he said.
Unless those changes are made, the cycle of inequity will continue, he said.