On November 8, members of Pennsylvania Hospital’s (PAH) six diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) workgroups — clinical, research, education, community, culture, and people — collaborated for the first time in a virtual setting through PAH’s first DEI Summit. Since the workgroups’ launch in November 2020, each group has been working separately to tackle disparities in various aspects of health care, only having the chairs represent the groups and exchange updates in a monthly meeting. To enhance collaboration, the chairs decided to plan a summit where all members could listen and contribute their experiences and ideas.
“We started these workgroups from scratch,” said Karen Alkire, a quality and training specialist, and chair of the education workgroup. Alkire served as the coordinator for the DEI Summit. “In just one year, we’ve made tremendous progress with strengthening current programs and developing new ones to support DEI for patients and staff.”
With nearly 40 members in attendance, and several members of PAH’s Executive Leadership team, each workgroup presented their goals, the current work in place, and the progress toward reaching those goals, offering time for questions and feedback among the members. After the presentations, the members were divided into breakout rooms as an additional space to brainstorm ways to enhance DEI at the hospital.
A few initiatives shared at the summit included preparation for January’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration and the launch of the first Grand Rounds — a panel discussing the current research projects at PAH focused on improving diversity in clinical trials and equity in care for underrepresented patient populations. In addition, the workgroups discussed the return of PAH’s high school student program, which was halted by the pandemic. The program gives local students interested in pursuing careers in health care and hospital operations the opportunity to network with medical professionals, having the goal of hiring one student from each cohort.
“Our goals were education, collaboration, and inspiration,” said Alkire. “We want people to walk away knowing something they didn’t know about the other groups, collaborating with others who share similar DEI goals, and feeling inspired and motivated to continue these efforts.”