Univ. of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics joins efforts toward health equity

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) - University of Iowa Health Care is the latest medical facility to join efforts towards health equity through a training program

The training and networking program, launched Tuesday, is a part of the American Medical Association’s network program designed to help advance racial justice and equity for patients, staff, and communities.

“We really need to jump and create much stronger infrastructure on how we treat all different patients and making sure that we don’t leave anybody behind,” said Interim Associate Vice President for Health Parity, Dr. Denise Martinez.

She is one of many medical officials leading UIHC’s efforts towards health equality in every sense of the word.

“That would include making sure that we understand the demographics of the patients that we’re taking so we can figure out where the gaps are in care, where do the health disparities exist and how do we best collect that data so that we’re able to take care of everyone,” said Dr. Martinez.

Similar efforts have been launched at other health systems in Eastern Iowa.

Linn County Public health has come up on two months since adding Anne Carter as County Health Equity Program Manager.

She says they are also focusing on health equity training for their employees.

“Make sure we’re building a sustainable health equity culture and that we understand individually as well as the work that we do collectively, what it means to practice health equity,” said Carter.

Both Carter and Martinez say the success of these efforts are, in large part, based on community response.

“We see so many folks of so many different backgrounds and so as we see folks, and as they have their own experiences, getting that feedback is also critical,” said Dr. Martinez.

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