Standards of Cultural Diversity
by Ronald Robinson, Director of Accreditation
Since becoming a Compliance Specialist in 2017 and assuming responsibilities for accreditation activities, I am proud of our success and the systems we’ve put into place. In support of our “Say Yes” Challenge, our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion culture, it’s the perfect time to review The Joint Commission’s tenets related to cultural diversity.
The Joint Commission standards make it clear that cultural competence of staff is integral to the provision of care, treatment or services. And at BHG, we understand that in order to provide hope, respect and caring the BHG way, we must be culturally sensitive when planning for patient care. To conform to the standards of cultural diversity, we adhere to the following:
- Collect assessment data from the patient related to religious or spiritual orientation and cultural and language preferences.
- Be able to work effectively with the local community and/or receive input from members of minority groups or advisors who are knowledgeable about gender, ethnicity and language issues.
- The standards of Human Resources require that staff will be oriented on sensitivity to cultural diversity based on their job duties and responsibilities.
- Sensitivity to cultural diversity means being aware of and respecting cultural differences. However, this does not mean that we have to be conversant with every culture that we may encounter.
- Although the standards allow for the provision of culturally appropriate or popular and non-harmful alternative therapies, we must allow for the patient’s right to seek and choose alternatives and do our part to support those choices.
Here’s a resource for you
Our Human Resources Team has provided us with numerous learning modules to help us achieve our cultural competence goals. These learning modules include BHG Cultural Competence and Culturally Competent Care 2.0 and are housed in our Paycor LMS which you can access through your dashboard.
Let’s continue our commitment to appreciating, valuing and caring for the diversity or our teams and communities.