While job areas related to patient care have experienced a long history of diversification, the same cannot be said of healthcare jobs in upper management, according to a report from the NAACP.
Some hospitals and health systems have created programs to monitor diversity procurement but, overall, diversity programs are largely lacking in the healthcare industry, according to the NAACP's Opportunity & Diversity Report Card on the healthcare industry, the third in a series of economic healthcare reports on corporate diversity and inclusion.
The NAACP cited findings from the most recent Institute for Diversity in Health Management biannual benchmarking surveys to demonstrate specific areas in which the healthcare industry has the opportunity to grow diversity.
Highlighted below are some of the survey's findings, as outlined in the NAACP report.
Minorities in executive positions
- In 2013, the percentage of minorities serving as board members for hospitals and health systems remained the same as in 2011 at 14 percent.
- The percentage of minorities serving in executive positions in the industry remained the same between 2011 and 2013 also, at 12 percent
- The percentage of minorities in first and mid-level management positions increased from 15 percent in 2011 to 17 percent in 2013.
Hospital participation in diversity improvement plans
- Hospitals with a nondiscrimination policy that includes the ethnic, racial, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and transsexual communities — 89 percent
- Hospitals that educate all clinical staff during orientation about how to address cultural and linguistic factors affecting the care of diverse patients and communities — 81 percent
- Hospitals that collaborate with other healthcare organizations to improve professional and allied healthcare workforce training, as well as educational programs in the communities served — 75 percent
- Hospitals that require all employees to attend diversity training — 61 percent
- Hospitals that have a documented plan to recruit and retain a diverse workforce that reflects the organization's patient population — 48 percent
- Hospitals that have implemented a program that identifies diverse, talented employees within the organization for promotion — 42 percent
- Hospital hiring managers that have a diversity goal in their performance expectations —18 percent
Hospitals using leadership diversity goals
- Hospitals whose funding resources allocated for hospital's cultural diversity and competency initiatives are sustainable — 45 percent
- Hospital governing boards that have set goals for creating diversity within its membership that reflect the diversity of the hospital's patient population — 33 percent
- Hospitals that have incorporated diversity management into the organization's budgetary planning and implementation process — 30 percent
- Hospitals that have a plan to specifically increase the number of ethnically, culturally and racially diverse executives serving on the senior leadership team — 23 percent
- Hospitals that require governing board members to demonstrate that they have completed diversity training — 15 percent
- Hospitals that tie a portion of executive compensation to diversity goals — 10 percent
The NAACP also graded the six largest healthcare systems in the country to assess the diversity of the workforce and supply chains of each.
To read the full report, click here.
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