Highlights | Developing an equity mindset
- The Office of Healthcare Equity developed the Equity Impact Review Tool to make decisions with equity in mind.
- The tool can be used when making decisions about hiring, budgets, policies, procedures and everyday issues.
- The tool leads decision-makers through a series of six steps that explicitly identify potential equity issues and initiates a process to produce more equitable outcomes.
Equity is an essential factor in decisions big and small.
Without equity in our decision-making process, it can adversely affect marginalized communities. For example, a training event is planned that only some workers, because of shift schedules, can attend. An off-campus office retreat is difficult to get to without a car. Images are chosen for publications without appreciation for gender or racial diversity. Testing or screening facilities are set up in neighborhoods that are far from those who most need access. Committees are formed without adequate representation — or, conversely, staff from minoritized groups are “volun-told” to join.
The Office of Healthcare Equity (OHCE), and others such as Human Resources or Risk Management, are called in to address the adverse impacts that result from these everyday decisions made without equity in mind. These situations are 100% preventable.
UW Medicine is committed to becoming an anti-racist organization. To achieve this goal, we seek to achieve a vision in which a critical mass of faculty, staff and students come to work and study every day at UW Medicine with a strong equity mindset. This mindset must begin with leaders who will hold themselves accountable.
An equity mindset requires knowing the sociohistorical context of exclusion and racism in which our system operates and knowing the scientific facts relevant to how bias and racism are enacted in our systems and lives. It also means being aware that behaviors, policies and practices that may appear to be neutral can produce inequitable outcomes and being willing to assume responsibility for addressing potential inequities before they occur.
New Equity Impact Review Tool helps develop an equity mindset
A crucial tool for developing an equity mindset is OHCE’s Equity Impact Review Tool (EIRT). This tool can be used when making decisions about hiring, budgets, policies, procedures and everyday issues. The tool leads decision-makers through a series of six steps that explicitly identify potential equity issues and initiates a process to produce more equitable outcomes.
Six step process
- Identify those potentially impacted by a decision and who makes the final decision.
- Learn about the concerns of relevant stakeholders.
- Identify multiple solutions and their impacts on marginalized groups and individuals.
- Review the original problem and consider any changes that may be necessary to ensure equitable outcomes are possible.
- Implement the best possible decision.
- Monitor outcomes and adjust as priorities and concerns shift — while communicating with stakeholders.
To learn more about the steps and to download a fillable EIRT worksheet, visit the Office of Healthcare Equity website or sign up for a workshop below.
Monthly workshops
OHCE is offering monthly 90-minute workshops for our community, in which we review the EIRT and offer specific opportunities for attendees to bring a current decision and workshop it through the tool with assistance. We hope you can join us at an upcoming session:
- Register for Thursday, July 13, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
- Register for Tuesday, August 8, 10:00-11:30 a.m.
- Register for Monday, September 18, 9:00-10:30 a.m.
The big picture
Equity impact review tools are now used in many local, state and federal organizations, including the City of Seattle and King County. Each impact tool, assessment, statement or provision is different, but all share a common process: Hit the pause button, identify possible adverse impacts and key stakeholders, proactively address the issues and monitor outcomes. UW Medicine’s EIRT is designed to facilitate learning this process and doing it well, every day.
Although it’s just one of many advances needed to truly produce an institution characterized by equity, inclusion, belonging and justice for all members of its community, the EIRT is an important tool in the toolbox.
