Track 2-5b
Research

Measuring the Cultural Competence of Health Care for American Indians

The health care system for American Indians is changing rapidly, with downsizing of the Indian Health Service, increased management of health programs by tribes, and increased utilization of other sources of care. There is a need to measure the quality of care for American Indian people in these diverse health care systems and a need to ensure that culturally competent care is provided. This presentation will review these recent changes in the Indian health system, the need to measure the cultural competence of health systems that treat Indian people, and some problems in measuring culturally competent care for American Indians. Recent studies will be reviewed that have evaluated the cultural competence of health care for American Indian populations, both inside and outside the Indian health system, and recommendations for further studies will be discussed.

Yvette Roubideaux MD MPH
Senior Fellow in Indian Health
University of Washington
School of Medicine, Box 357430
Seattle WA 98195
Phone: (206)685-2489
Fax (206) 543-9063
yvetter@u.washington.edu

Dr. Roubideaux, an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, is a graduate of Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, and completed a Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston MA. She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, and recently completed the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy and her MPH degree from Harvard School of Public Health. She worked in the Phoenix Area Indian Health Service as a medical officer and clinical director for four years prior to obtaining her MPH degree. She is currently a Senior Fellow in Indian Health at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Her academic/research interests include research on the quality of health care for American Indians, especially those with diabetes, and research on Indian health policy issues. Dr. Roubideaux is on a number of national committees related to diabetes in American Indians, and is the President-Elect of the Association of American Indian Physicians.   NEXT >

essentials | models and practices | policy | legal issues | networking
table of contents | contact us | who we are

These pages are sponsored by the HHS Health Care Financing Administration.
Copyright © 1998, DiversityRx; www.diversityRx.org, Last update:January 20, 2000

 Diversity Rx is sponsored by: