Track 3-4
Policy

Assessing Cultural Competence: Tools for Individuals and Organizations

The presentation will present the findings from a study of clinical and an institutional models of culturally competent health care. The two-phase study conducted with the support of the Health Resources and Services Administration focuses on both the individual practitioner and the health care delivery system’s capacity to serve culturally and linguistically diverse enrollees. The model of culturally competent primary care evolved from the first phase of the study involving physician panels from a Chinese and a Mexican American owned and managed health maintenance organization They contributed to the development of a common member survey and a health practitioner survey to assess the capacity to serve culturally and linguistically diverse patient populations. Each survey’s questions correlate so that their responses can profile the quality of interpersonal communication and trust between practitioner and patient.
  The second phase of the study raised issues of institutional competency in the context of managed care. The sites for this phase of the study are four large managed care delivery systems in the Los Angeles basin which contract with the State of California’s MediCal Managed Care Program. The data collected from the plans have led to the formulation of a new institutional model of culturally competent health care. This model includes a five stage continuum representing increasing levels of cultural competence. These stages are 1) Culturally Resistant, 2) Culturally Unaware, 3) Culturally Conscious, 4) Culturally Insightful and 5) Culturally Versatile. The study’s self assessment tools are designed to assist both the individual and the health care organization determine their position along this continuum.

Miguel Tirado, PhD
Dean of Graduate Studies
Professor, Health and Human Services
Cal State University - Monterey Bay
125 El Caminito Road
Carmel Valley, CA 93924
831-582-3967/ 831-582-3967-FAX
Miguel_Tirado@monterey.edu

Dr. Miguel Tirado is the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at California State University Monterey Bay. He also is a Professor of Collaborative Human Services and founding Director of the University’s Institute for Community Collaborative Studies. He currently serves on the State of California’s Cultural and Linguistic Standards Task Force. He also is a Senior Research Fellow at the Naval Postgraduate in Monterey, California . He has served as a consultant to major U.S. and international health care plans in their adaptation of managed care practices to culturally diverse populations., PhD Dean of Graduate Studies, Professor of Health and Human Services, California State University - Monterey Bay   NEXT >

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