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Linguistic and Cultural Competence
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National Conference on Cultural Competence
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Language Barriers to Health Care
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The First National Conference on Access to Quality
Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations: Models, Policy, and Financing
for Health Care Systems Summer 1998
Delivering quality health care in a way that improves outcomes and is
cost-effective is the driving force in today's changing health care environment.
Coupled with the growing diversity of the United States, these trends point
to a unique opportunity for health care providers to develop quality health
care services that are accessible and responsive to the unique needs of
linguistically and culturally diverse communities.
Conference Objectives
This conference will focus on developing partnerships between communities,
providers, payors, and policymakers to understand and design culturally
competent health care systems and practices for effective service delivery.
The conference objectives are to: 1. examine the consumer, regulatory, and
market forces that make recognizing the needs of diverse populations so
important; 2. highlight the model programs and practices that can lead to
better quality services and outcomes; and 3. emphasize a systems approach
based on the active involvement and cooperation of organizations, staffs,
and communities.
Target Audience
Improving access to quality health care for diverse populations is relevant
and challenging to policymakers, health care organizations, health care
providers and communities. Responding successfully to demands for culturally
competent services requires involvement from a broad range of individuals
and organizations, including:
- consumers, consumer representatives, health care organization trustees,
and organizations representing ethnic/cultural groups;
- CEOs and senior administrative staff of health care organizations and
health systems;
- provider and provider representative groups, including those involved
in the training of health professionals
- leaders of major national health care associations such as the American
Association of Health Plans, the American Hospital Association and other
hospital groups, the National Association of Community Health Centers;
- monitoring and oversight organizations such as The National Committee
on Quality Assurance and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health
Care Organizations;
- state health care representative groups, health care staff in organizations
likely to be responsible for diversity-related actions; and government
representatives, especially health departments.
Content
The Conference will take place over three days, and will include a mix of
plenary sessions generally focused on policy issues related to organizations
and workshops on targeted topics. The plenary sessions will address overarching
issues related to diversity and set the context for considering the impact
of cultural competence on service delivery and improving access. We anticipate
these sessions will include:
- an overview of the concept of cultural competence;
- the role of community;
- cultural competence, financing and productivity;
- service system issues (e.g., organization of services, patient quality,
marketing, service needs and cultural competence)
- health professions education and cultural competency
- policy implications related to cultural competency, including emerging
legal accreditation and regulatory issues.
Workshops will follow the plenary sessions. They will be organized around
major conference themes (e.g., administrative/organization issues; community,
staff, provider). Breakout sessions, conducted concurrently, will be tailored
to the attendees (e.g., for CEOs, the role of the CEO in addressing diversity
and the importance to the organization). A presentation will occur at each
workshop, followed by either panel comment and/or interactive discussion
with the audience. Plenary sessions will synthesize lessons from the workshops
or major issues/questions that need attention. CME credit will be available
for conference attendees.
For more information on the The First National Conference on Access to
Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations, please contact:
The National Public Health and Hospital Institute
202-408-0229 (phone), 202-408-0235 (fax)
President: Dennis P. Andrulis
Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care
301-588-6051 (phone), 301-585-4898 (fax)
Director: Julia Puebla Fortier
HHS Office of Minority Health
301-443-5084 (phone), 301-594-0767 (fax)
Special Assistant to the Director: Guadalupe Pacheco |
