Commitment to Health Equity and Anti-Racism
Health Equity and Anti-Racism Action Plan
A group of committed workforce members created the Health Equity and Anti-Racism Action Plan to prioritize the most powerful actions to address systemic racism within Seattle Children’s from late 2021 through 2024.
What is anti-racism?
At Seattle Children’s, anti-racism means that we actively identify, challenge and change the culture, structures and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism. Being anti-racist requires urgency and stamina.
What is health equity?
Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing barriers to health including access to quality, equitable healthcare. Learn more.
Taking Action
The Seattle Children’s Health Equity and Anti-Racism Action Plan has eight outcome measures for fiscal year 2023. Learn more about Seattle Children’s commitments over the next few years.
Add Anti-Racism to Values
Outcome measure
Update Seattle Children’s values to include anti-racism to hold leaders and workforce accountable through the performance evaluation process.
December 2022 progress update
After compiling feedback from the HEDI Council and Inclusion Network leaders, updates were made to values-based behaviors and leadership qualities to incorporate anti-racism. The updates were approved by the Executive Leadership Team in July 2022. The updated values-based behaviors and leadership qualities will be introduced in March 2023 and incorporated into FY23 performance evaluations with a focus on accountability.
Executive Accountability
Outcome measure
Link executive compensation to achievement of Action Plan outcomes.
December 2022 progress update
The Board approved FY23 executive compensation goals in September 2022, which will continue the same model of 16% of executive compensation being linked to achievement of equity-related goals. Final goal achievement will be determined on September 30, 2023, and executive compensation based upon those results.
Behavioral Response Project
Outcome measure
The Behavioral Response Project will replace Code Purple with an equitable and anti-racist structure that is co-created with patients and families to ensure it is culturally responsive and provides psychosocial support.
December 2022 progress update
Finalized implementation plan and training for the launch of the new Adaptive Social Response system, which replaced Code Purple in early Q2.
Employee Diversity
Outcome measure
Increase employee diversity by race/ethnicity by 3% to 43.4% through hiring and retention strategies to further reflect Seattle Children’s patient population.
December 2022 progress update
The FY23 goal of 43.4% racial and ethnic diversity is tracked through quarterly milestones. The Q1 goal of 41.2% was not met with a result of 41%. Ongoing work to increase employee diversity is an org-wide effort and it is important to follow inclusive and equitable hiring practices as we move forward in reaching our goals. A Director of Retention and Engagement was hired to support our focus on retention and to improve onboarding and integration of new workforce members.
Family Experience Survey
Outcome measure
Achieve score of 81.5% and obtain national race, ethnicity and language (REaL) benchmark data for the Family Experience Survey (FES) from Press Ganey.
December 2022 progress update
The annual goal is set to be attainable by the end of the fiscal year, and results are often red at the beginning of the year. Pediatric experience scores declined in Q1 across peer groups, largely due to the tri-demic of RSV, COVID and flu seasons that continue to impact Emergency Department volumes and wait times.
CLABSI
Outcome measure
Decrease overall non-mucosal barrier injury central line associated bloodstream infection (non-MBI CLABSI) rates and eliminate CLABSI disparities. Meet 2 of the 3 components of this goal:
- Decrease overall FY23 CLABSI rate to 1.17 per 1,000 line days.
- Eliminate disparity of CLABSI rates for Black and African American patients.
- Eliminate disparity of CLABSI rates for patients who use a language other than English.
December 2022 progress update
Overall CLABSI rates are trending slightly above target. CLABSI rates for patients who use a language other than English meet the Q1 goal but CLABSI rates for Black and African American patients did not meet the Q1 goal. In order to improve outcomes, central line maintenance bundle training has been completed and central line handout and roadmaps translated into the top five languages.
Hospital Acquired Conditions
Outcome measure
Stratify Hospital Acquired Conditions (HAC) rate by race, ethnicity and language (REaL) and maintain or decrease baseline rate of 2.23.
December 2022 progress update
Finalized the new outcome measure on Hospital Acquired Conditions (HAC), which expands the focus of harm reduction to include 9 types of hospital-acquired harm. In Q1, the HAC rate was successfully stratified by race, ethnicity and language and will be used to identify disparities and inform quality improvement efforts.
Research Participant Diversity
Outcome measure
Increase enrollment of diverse research participants by 3% to 34% relative to FY22 to further reflect Seattle Children’s patient population.
December 2022 progress update
Identified focus areas for the new outcome measure focused on increasing research participant diversity including Research Language Office utilization, improvement of demographic data collection, potential data dashboard transition and reconciliation of data discrepancy.
Tracking Progress
Beginning December 2021, Seattle Children’s released Action Plan progress updates on a quarterly basis. Although the plan was released less than a year ago, some areas are showing measurable impact. Other areas require establishing the connections and structure needed to build toward long-term impact. View the latest progress update.
We Are Listening and Want to Hear From You
Seattle Children’s is accountable to the communities it serves. Patients and families are invited to provide feedback on their experience at Seattle Children’s via surveys, and family advisors — parents and caregivers from our community — share their perspectives regularly. We continue to look for opportunities to invite patients and families to help design programs and service delivery to better serve those receiving care. Seattle Children’s workforce and community members also provided feedback on the Action Plan and shared their priorities, and ongoing research tracks parents’ attitudes toward Seattle Children’s.
Leadership and Collaboration
Progress toward becoming a leader in health equity and changing racist systems requires action by individuals, teams and at the organizational level. Accountability for direction setting and making change lies with leaders, but progress would not be possible without workforce and community members including the Action Plan Task Force; Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Council and committees; and Seattle Children’s Inclusion Networks.
- Dr. Jeff Sperring, chief executive officer
- Myra Gregorian, chief people officer
- Alicia Tieder, senior director and chief diversity officer
Health Equity and Anti-Racism Action Plan
- Health Equity and Anti-Racism Action Plan (PDF)
- En Español: Plan de acción contra el racismo y por la equidad médica (PDF)