Open AccessDevelopment, implementation, and use of an “equity lens” integrated into an institutional quality scorecard
Author(s) -
Mark W. Connolly,
Mary Kate Selling,
Sandy Cook,
James S. Williams,
Marshall H. Chin,
Craig A Umscheid
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of the american medical informatics association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.614
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1527-974X
pISSN - 1067-5027
DOI - 10.1093/jamia/ocab082
Subject(s) - balanced scorecard , equity (law) , business , quality (philosophy) , health care , quality management , ethnic group , process management , marketing , political science , economics , economic growth , philosophy , epistemology , service (business) , law
Few healthcare provider organizations systematically track their healthcare equity, and fewer enable direct interaction with such data by their employees. From May to August 2019, we enhanced the data architecture and reporting functionality of our existing institutional quality scorecard to allow direct comparisons of quality measure performance by gender, age, race, ethnicity, language, zip code, and payor. The Equity Lens was made available to over 4000 staff in September 2019 for 82 institutional quality measures. During the first 11 months, 235 unique individuals used the tool; users were most commonly from the quality and equity departments. Two early use cases evaluated hypertension control and readmissions by race, identifying potential inequities. This is the first description of an interactive equity lens integrated into an institutional quality scorecard made available to healthcare system employees. Early evidence suggests the tool is used and can inform quality improvement initiatives.