2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

Home Events & Meetings Annual Meeting Schedule & Program

Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

329619
CLAS in all Policies: Cultural and Linguistic Competence and Health Equity at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation


Tuesday, November 3, 2015 : 11:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.

Camellia Mortezazadeh, MPH, Office of Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, New York, NY
Matilde Roman, Esq., Office of Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, New York, NY
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
According to the 2012 American Community Survey, nearly forty percent (40%) of New Yorkers were born outside of the United States. Over 200 languages and dialects are spoken by city residents deriving from countries around the globe.  Fifty percent (50%) of New Yorkers speak a language other than English at home, and approximately 1.8 million residents are deemed limited English proficient.1

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) serves over 1.2 million patients annually. As the largest municipal hospital system in the country, HHC is uniquely positioned at the forefront of issues related to health equity and access, and can serve as a thought leader in overcoming and addressing healthcare disparities given the racial, ethnic and linguistic diversity in New York City and among HHC’s patient population.

This presentation will discuss HHC’s strategies to enhance the principles of equity and cultural and linguistic competence throughout the organization, and its work in supporting unique cultural, language and health literacy needs of increasingly diverse consumers to improve quality and individual and community health. Learn the approach HHC is taking to rethink what is means to become a culturally competent healthcare system, as well as successes, challenges and opportunities organizations embarking on similar journeys can learn from. Topics discussed include benchmarks on the collection of race, ethnicity and language preference, or “REAL” data across facilities, assessing changing patient demographics and implications for culturally competent care, training and workforce development strategies and other initiatives to facilitate organizational change and achieve health equity.

1 U.S. Census Bureau. 2012 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates. Population Division - New York City Department of City Planning (Jan. 2014)

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Administration, management, leadership
Diversity and culture
Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
Identify and discuss strategies for re-framing and embedding cultural and linguistic competence within your organization or health system (Where are we? Where do we need to go? How do we get there?) Assess how to advance and sustain practices over time to initiate organizational change Compare the experience, findings and lessons learned from a large urban public hospital system to your respective organization or health system

Keyword(s): Cultural Competency, Public Hospitals

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Associate Director of Cultural Competency, overseeing the development and implementation of system-wide cultural competence and health equity initiatives at the Central Office of Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, the largest public hospital system in the country. I also hold past experience at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

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.

Back to: 4130.0: Policies, programs, and systems for improving equity-I