MHA Pledge to Address Racism and Health Inequities

Pledge to Address Racism and Health Inequities

In alignment with the commitment made by the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) Board of Trustees at their Nov. 4, 2020 meeting, my hospital/health system makes the following pledge to do our part in addressing systemic racism and health inequities that affect people of color and all marginalized populations in our communities. We have a unique responsibility to do this: healthcare is the largest employment sector in Michigan, meaning that we can lead by example in hiring practices and economic opportunity for all. At the same time, access to quality, affordable healthcare is extraordinarily important, and the current data on health disparities indicates a significant opportunity for improvement.

Specifically, the MHA and its members pledge to do the following:

We pledge to listen. We will seek input from our employees, volunteers, medical staff, trustees, patients and families, business partners, and communities. We will do so in a variety of ways, to ensure that all voices are truly heard. We will facilitate and engage in community conversations about race, social determinants of health, implicit bias, and ways to identify and address local disparities in health outcomes.
We pledge to act. We will do our part to identify and address disparities, put an end to systemic racism, and remove any and all barriers to health equity within our organizations and including partners within our communities. We will continue and strengthen the work we have already initiated to ensure equitable access to safe high-quality healthcare for all Michiganders. We will continue our strident advocacy for funding and regulatory policy at the state and federal levels that are critical to eliminating bias and removing healthcare disparities to achieve equitable outcomes.
We pledge to lead. We will ensure that equity and inclusion are embedded within our organizational values and then operationalize those values through policy and practice. We will hold each other accountable to those values and provide education and support to our staff, medical providers, students and volunteers on cultural competence, implicit bias and healthcare disparities.

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By checking this box, I hereby pledge to commit my organization to addressing racism and health disparities as indicated above.

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3. Email address: *This question is required. This question requires a valid email address.

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5. Organization: *This question is required.

6. Are you submitting this pledge on behalf of your entire health system or individual hospital? *This question is required.

7. Please provide contact information for the individual who oversees your organization's diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. This individual will be contacted by the MHA regarding the completion of a health equity organizational assessment. *This question is required.

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Last Name

Title

Email Address

Phone Number

8. If you have an additional contact who oversees your organization's diversity, equity and inclusion or population health efforts, please enter their information below.

First Name

Last Name

Title

Email Address

Phone Number

If there are additional staff members at your organization that you wish to have included on MHA communications related to advancing health equity, please email the contact information (name, title, email and phone number) for each person to keystone@mha.org.

A copy of this form will be sent to your email after you click 'Submit'.