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Abstract #159282

Robert Weech-Maldonado, MBA PhD¹, Janice L. Dreachslin, PhD², Marc N. Elliott, PhD³, Cameron Schiller¹, Allyson Hall, PhD⁴, and Ron D. Hays, PhD⁵. (1) Department of Health Services Research, Management, and Policy, University of Florida, 101 S. Newell Drive, Room 4151, PO Box 100195, Gainesville, FL 32610-0195, (2) Management Division, Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies, 30 E. Swedesford Road, Malvern, PA 19355, (610) 648-3269, jld13@psu.edu, (3) RAND, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407, (4) Department of Health Services Research, Management & Policy, University of Florida, PO Box 100195, Gainesville, FL 32610, (5) The RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, PO Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407

Cultural competence has been defined as an “ongoing commitment or institutionalization of appropriate practices and policies for diverse populations” (Brach and Fraser, 2000). The national standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS), set forth by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health, provide guidelines on policies and practices aimed at developing culturally competent systems of care. The 14 CLAS standards are categorized into three themes: Culturally Competent Care (Standards 1-3), Language Access Services (Standards 4-7), and Organizational Supports for Cultural Competence (Standards 8-14). The Cultural Competency Assessment Tool for Hospitals (CCATH) is a survey instrument that was developed to assess hospital's performance with respect to the CLAS standards.

In this study we describe the development process of the CCATH, which included a comprehensive review of available cultural competence assessment tools, obtaining input from managers and researchers in the field, pilot testing the initial draft of the instrument, and qualitative testing (focus groups and cognitive interviews) of a revised version of the survey. In addition, we present the survey results of the CCATH field test in California from October 2006- February 2007. The sampling frame for the CCATH mail survey consisted of all acute care hospitals in California, approximately 370 hospitals. Descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) are used to examine the adherence of California hospitals to each of the CLAS standards. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to examine differences in adherence to the CLAS standard by ownership (for-profit, not-for-profit, and government).

Learning Objectives:

• To describe the developmental process of the Cultural Competency Assessment Tool for Hospitals (CCATH) as an instrument to assess hospital's performance on the DHHS Office of Minority Health's cultural and linguistic appropriate services (CLAS) standards.
• To analyze hospital's adherence to the 14 CLAS standards using 2006 CCATH survey data from acute care hospitals in California.
• To evaluate whether there are variations in hospital's adherence to the CLAS standards based on ownership type (government, for-profit, not-for-profit).
• To discuss the policy implications of the findings of the study.

Keywords: Cultural Competency, Vulnerable Populations

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.