The Commonwealth Fund Program on Health Care Disparities
<p>I'd like to inform you that the Commonwealth Fund's Program on Quality of Care for Underserved Populations is now the <a href="/programs/programs_list.htm?attrib_id=9133">Program on Health Care Disparities.</a> The name change was made to better reflect the program's new goals. Previous program work focused on collecting race and ethnicity data and linking it to clinical performance data, enabling providers to identify disparities in the quality of care delivered to minorities. Fund research also helped define and develop standards for cultural competence and initiated clinical interventions with a special focus on safety-net providers. Building on this last area, the program now focuses on improving the performance of safety-net hospitals and ambulatory care clinics serving large numbers of low-income and minority patients.<br><br>The strategies it pursues include: <ul><li>Identifying opportunities for improving performance of safety-net providers;</li><li>Enhancing the capacity of safety-net providers to improve performance; and</li><li>Fostering incentives and policies that promote better performance of safety-net providers.</ul>We look forward to the challenge of ensuring that all Americans have access to a high performance health care system.<Br><br>Anne Beal, M.D., M.P.H.<Br>
Assistant Vice President<br>Program on Health Care Disparities</p>