Health Equity Update #7 – Racial Equity in Healthcare Progress Report – Submission Deadline Sept. 17

August 13, 2021

MEMORANDUM

On June 18, as part of its inaugural Health Equity Action Day, the Illinois Health and Hospital Association launched the Racial Equity in Healthcare Progress Report (“Progress Report”) – a critical part of IHA’s effort to assist members’ efforts to address racial health disparities.

As a long-term accountability tool to document progress toward achieving racial health equity, the Progress Report is meant to promote collective improvement by providing a baseline self-assessment and then an opportunity to measure progress, assess implementation of key strategies, understand provider and community assets in racial equity work, and identify areas of improvement.

All Illinois hospitals are urged to submit the Progress Report survey by September 17, 2021. Currently, 48 hospitals and health systems have indicated that they plan to meet this deadline. Hospitals that meet this deadline will receive an analytic report of your results that will serve as a compass to action for your organization by mid-October 2021. Learning opportunities and resources (e.g., collaboratives, playbooks, best practices) to support organizations pursue common opportunities for growth identified by the Progress Report will be available for those who submit by the deadline.  IHA will not share individual hospital data submitted for the Progress Report with anyone outside of the submitting organization, without its permission.

Hyperlinks to the Progress Report Survey and helpful supplemental material are included below:

  • The Progress Report Survey: To complete the survey, you must submit your answers through the Progress Report Survey online platform by September 17, 2021. Please note that you can save your responses in the survey at any time and return at a later date or edit responses. To go back to saved responses, you must utilize the same device and same web browser used to start the survey.
  • Guidance Document: To support you while completing the survey and pursuing your health equity strategy, this document provides background information on the Progress Report, analytics to be provided based on your Progress Report survey, resources to guide future work, and definitions to ground everyone in similar terminology. Please read through the guidance document before completing the survey.
  • Progress Report PDF: We recommend that you use the pdf document to draft and compile your answers with your team. This will make it easier to then input your final data into the online Progress Report Survey portal.

If you have questions or need support while completing the Progress Report, please contact healthequity@team-iha.org.

Working together, Illinois hospitals and health systems have the opportunity to dismantle systemic racism and advance health equity in a way that no individual organization can. The Progress Report aims to highlight the important progress that organizations have already made, as well as the work ahead.

For further information, please contact IHA.