Health equity is rooted in the idea that everyone should be able to have a fair and unbiased opportunity to seek out and receive good-quality healthcare.
At Rochester Regional Health, we are putting this idea into practice for our community as a whole and our own workforce. Through partnerships, increasing access, advocacy, and representation, we are working to ensure our vision of a more equitable health system becomes a reality.
Partnerships
Our providers and leadership are building partnerships with many local and regional organizations who strive toward health equity.
Partnering with the Action for a Better Community (ABC) in their Signature Conference Series allows us to bring attention to the need for economic justice for an inclusive recovery, racism as a public health crisis, and the journey ahead for empowerment, equity & accountability.
Efforts to teach health literacy – the ability for people to find, understand, and use accurate health information to inform their health decisions – through the Alzheimer’s Association’s Rochester & Finger Lakes Chapter are proving to be fruitful for both patients and their caregivers. Providers including Nananamibia Duffy, MD, and Kerry Graff, MD, work with Common Ground Health as part of its Hair and Health Symposium to inform the community about the relationship between a person’s health and their hair.
Rochester Regional is also bolstering local work to address mental and behavioral health on an individual and systemic level by joining with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Parents Elevating their voice to Educate and Empower Each other to Eliminate disparities and inequities in services related to the Emotional Health of our Kids (BIPOC PEEEEEEK) for their Black History Month Educational Series.
Access
Growing access to healthcare is directly linked to our expansive footprint across the greater Rochester area and the North Country. We continually work to connect people in urban, suburban, and rural communities to high-quality healthcare providers close to them.
For patients who may have transportation or mobility concerns, developing mobile health services teams has brought services straight to them. Our mobile mammography unit, mobile surgical services for wound care, and mobile medical unit for homeless individuals all serve specific needs in our community. Our providers also work with Federal Qualified Health Centers to provide comprehensive, culturally competent, high-quality primary health care services for our community’s most vulnerable patients – regardless of their ability to pay.
At the Wilson Multicultural Medical Campus, patients from underserved populations in the Rochester community receive a variety of specialized high-quality medical care – including family medicine, pediatrics, imaging services, urgent care, orthopaedics, pharmacy, and more – all on one campus.
Advocacy and representation
Rochester Regional Health strives as a health system to advocate on behalf of its community members through outreach and expanded health literacy.
Patients, families, and staff at Rochester General Hospital come together as part of the RGH Patient and Family Advisory Council to engage in productive dialogue on ways to improve and develop the best healthcare experience possible for everyone involved.
We are encouraged by the opportunity to strengthen the diversity of representation within our health practices. Research shows when providers and patients are of the same race or ethnicity, the quality of communication, information-sharing, patient participation, and participatory decision-making are all improved compared to providers and patients who do not share the same race or ethnicity.
“DEIJ is crucial to every organization, but for healthcare it is essential,” said Ebony Caldwell, MA, EdD, Interim Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer. “The work we do is for the health of our patients, with the support of our employees, and about impacting our communities.”
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