Key takeaways from Alina Moran’s Keynote address at the Elevate Conference and her interview on the To Care is Human podcast by the Beryl Institute.

April is National Minority Health Month and Oneview Healthcare is focusing on Diversity & Inclusion in healthcare and what we can do to move the needle.  Equal access to healthcare is key to ensuring the health of minority and underserved populations. At the recent Elevate PX Conference, sponsored by the Beryl Institute, Alina Moran, President of Dignity Health California Hospital Medical Center, spoke on her family’s personal struggle with access to healthcare and her work today on ensuring equal access to all.

Ms. Moran grew up in Bronx, New York where at the tender age of ten she often translated for her parents when the family had to go to the Emergency Room to be able to care for her brother who had asthma. Ms. Moran’s family didn’t have health insurance and had to rely on emergency care, community health clinics, and free services to try and manage not only her brother’s needs, but also the needs of the rest of the family.  It was because of this lived experience that she decided to work in the healthcare industry.

Below are our key takeaways from Ms. Moran’s keynote address as well as her interview on the To Care Is Human podcast by the Beryl Institute.

Connect with the lives of the patients
In the daily meetings in the hospital, the team at Dignity Health California Hospital starts with a patient safety story to better connect to the human experience. Through this story sharing, the staff has a chance to reflect on the patient experience and how it affects their healthcare journey.  They also try to create a relationship-based culture by connecting to the lives of those they care for by talking with them about the patients’ lives outside of the hospital. This creates more of a personal connection between the staff and the patients. When people feel valued and reflected, it can positively affect their hospital experience.

Meet people where they are
People from all walks of life utilize our Hospital.  Some live in million-dollar homes and some are homeless from Skid Row. The hospital tries to meet people where they are. For the person living in Skid Row, a healthcare regimen may not be their top priority. Meeting patients where-they-are is important to adequately address healthcare issues.

Invest in whole-person, preventative care
Ms. Moran calls her hospital a “hospital without walls.”  Dignity Health California Hospital not only focuses on the people that come to them for care, but also the communities that are served by the hospital.  The programs in the community are focused on prevention and try to tackle the social determinants of health such as lack of housing, lack of education, and food instability. Through the Hope Street Margolis Family Center, preventative services, such as early education strategies for families with children, addressing food instability, and addressing developmental needs are an integral part of providing the community’s healthcare to positively affect long-term health outcomes.

The health, wellbeing, and morale of the staff is paramount
Due to the pandemic, the volume and around-the-clock care that patients needed, and the uncertainty of the future COVID-19 outbreaks, many hospital staff are choosing to leave the profession after a decade or more (see our recent blog The Great Resignation Trifecta: The 3 reasons healthcare systems are struggling with staffing). Hospital staff need to feel safe and valued so that they can then provide that to the patient and affect positive patient outcomes. Focusing on meeting the needs of staff members will translate to a better patient experience.

Be prepared
The pandemic taught us that our healthcare system was not prepared.  We need to advance a culture of being prepared for other disasters including another pandemic. Hospitals need to be able to get the supplies, technology, and infrastructure to react quickly to future disasters.

To listen to the whole podcast, go to https://www.theberylinstitute.org/page/PXPodcast

For more information on the Hope Street Margolis Family Center by Dignity Health in Los Angeles, go to  https://www.dignityhealth.org/socal/locations/californiahospital/about-us/community-programs/hope-street-margolis-family-center

[1] “A Conversation with Alina Moran, President at Dignity Health – California Hospital Medical Center.” To Care is Human from the Beryl Institute, March 30, 2022, https://www.theberylinstitute.org/page/PXPodcast.
[2] Moran, Alina. (2022, March 29) The Healing Power of Human Kindness [Conference presentation]. Elevate PX Conference, The Beryl Institute. Indianapolis, IN.