At Ballad Health, we believe everyone should be treated with respect. Our organization’s values include respect, faith and caring, and this applies to patients, visitors and fellow team members.
To reinforce this, we have a Center for Diversity & Inclusion, headed up by members of Ballad Health leadership. The Diversity & Inclusion council’s mission is to help build a culture of value and respect for diversity at Ballad Health. We appreciate our differences and similarities. They enable us to better serve our patients, one another, and our communities.
The Center for Diversity & Inclusion has been at work over the last year on various projects:
- Updating our system policies to make sure they are inclusive and compliant;
- Creating a new CBL for HealthStream, emphasizing respect for diversity;
- Working on provider education;
- Working on appropriate ways to get sensitive information from our patients for their medical record regarding sexual and religious history, gender information, etc.;
- Adding VRI (video remote interpreter) carts – first to all hospitals, then to all physician practices – that provide interpretive services for those speaking different languages, and for the deaf;
- Creating a diversity concern submission link for team members to use if they have a diversity issue or concern;
- Producing a video for team members about diversity and inclusion (watch the video here on the intranet);
- Studying our hospitals to make sure we eliminate any physical barriers for those with mobility, sight or hearing issues.
Recognizing our differences and treating others with respect should not be optional, or separated from our work. It is part of our everybody job of providing quality healthcare.
THE HOLIDAY SEASON
Many of us may only be aware of Christmas Day on Dec. 25, but did you know there are numerous religious holidays celebrated in December – for instance Advent, Bodhi Day, Feast Day, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and more? What special religious traditions do you have? Share them with us for a future article in Ballad Health News about how families across Ballad Health celebrate their beliefs each December. Submit to doug.janz@balladhealth.org.
BALLAD HEALTH DIVERSITY RESOURCES
Here’s a link to our Ballad Health Diversity & Inclusion page. You can also see our two previous, very brief articles in Ballad Health News about diversity at Ballad Health:
- Introducing our Center for Diversity & Inclusion
- Gary Metcalf on diversity and inclusion at Ballad Health
