Racial and ethnic diversity is increasing in the United States, and healthcare organizations have been working to decrease inequities in access and quality of healthcare. Delivery of healthcare services must be responsive to an individual’s communication needs, preferred language, health-literacy level, and cultural beliefs and practices. To help healthcare organizations establish guidelines for meeting the needs of a diverse patient population, the Office of Minority Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) developed the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards. The CLAS standards are designed to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequities by showing respect for the culture and language preferences of patients.
Review the standards on this Web site.
Consider the CLAS standards as you watch the following case study videos:
Cultural and Religious Beliefs
Using Language Access Services
Culturally Tailored Healthcare in Orthopedics
Culturally Tailored Healthcare in Obstetrics
Choose 1 video case study as the basis for and answer the following questions:
Briefly describe what type of healthcare inequity was depicted in the video.
Which CLAS standards are or are not demonstrated in the video? How would meeting the standards reduce health inequity in the example that you chose?
What could the healthcare organization do better to provide patients with the best care and eliminate the health inequities illustrated in the video?
If you were faced with similar types of situations in the future, explain how you would be better prepared to handle them appropriately after viewing the standards.