Health equity is now a National Patient Safety Goal

Abstract

Governmental data generated during the COVID 19 pandemic from 2019 to 2021 demonstrated that the virus disproportionately impacted communities of color. Specifically, Black, Hispanic, and Asian people were found to have substantially higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and death compared with White people. The extent of these disparities drew attention to other disparate outcomes including maternal mortality and morbidity, cancer outcomes, and overall life expectancy. Various professional organizations, including the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, began to add health equity to their strategic framework. In conjunction, this issue generated national attention reflected in the responses of federal and state governments as well as regulatory agencies. In addition to the ethical and moral reasons for intentional action to decrease these disparities and improve health equity, it became understood that significant economic costs are associated with health care disparities. If not adequately addressed, the economic consequence of these disparities will become exacerbated in the future as the United States becomes increasingly diverse. The Joint Commission has recently responded by distinguishing health equity as a significant patient safety and quality of care issue and identified it as the newest National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG). In this manuscript we discuss how healthcare institutions can comply with these new requirements and how radiology can contribute.