Our UH Emergency Medicine Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Team was created by in response to the ever-increasing health disparities we face each day. Comprised of passionate residents, faculty, advanced practice providers, nurses, community health workers and more, our department-wide team seeks to foster a respectful and inclusive community through education, advocacy, and outreach.
Dedicated to providing compassionate and equitable care for our patients while continuing to grow as individuals, we are striving toward our vision by:
Creating a safe space for residents, faculty, and ED staff to address concerns regarding diversity & inclusivity
Engaging in cognitive bias and anti-racism training
Examining and confronting healthcare biases through education and our department’s quality improvement process
Collaborating with local community partners to improve access to care and serve our community
Some recent/ongoing DEI-related efforts include:
Community Engagement — monthly volunteering at the 2100 Men’s Shelter (in which we provide narcan education/distribution and blood pressure screenings and also serve dinner), hands-on learning sessions in local schools and community events
Violence Interrupter Program — Collaborating with the Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance to improve the longterm health outcomes of our traumatically injured patients.
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) Clinic — Opened two years ago by our medical toxicologists (& DEI advocates) Drs. Ryan Marino and Lauren Porter, this clinic welcomes patients with substance use disorders interested in medical management.
"SDH Day” - During intern orientation, we devote an entire day to immersing our interns in some of the SDH challenges faced by our ED patients. This day includes stimulating small group discussions, ED-based patient scenarios, and firsthand experience of local community sites (such as the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, LGBT Community Center, 2100 Men’s Shelter) through touring the facilities and speaking with their leaders. Through these experiences, we hope to empower our residents to more thoughtfully prescribe some of these local resources to our patients.
Implicit Bias Training for the Residency Recruitment Committee - Prior to participating in residency recruitment, each member of our Recruitment Committee must complete implicit bias training to help them recognize their own unconscious biases and hopefully reduce their bias in reviewing applications and interviewing applicants.
Minority Bias in Peer Review — A dedicated member of the Peer Review Committee looks specifically at the influence of minority bias in providing care.
“A Day in the Life of a Patient” — As part of Intern Orientation, our interns spend a day assuming the role of a patient in our ED. Some are placed in regular patient rooms while others are assigned to locked psychiatric rooms or critical resuscitation bays. This firsthand glimpse of the ED from a patient’s perspective provides invaluable insight for our interns in relating to and empathizing with a diversity of patients.
Social EM Curriculum — Quarterly sessions in resident conference focusing on the social determinants of health and their effect on patients and their access to care.
We have other projects in the works! Stay tuned for updates!
David Satcher Clerkship for Underrepresented Minority Medical Students
University Hospitals recognizes how invaluable diversity and adequate representation of underrepresented minorities is to the future of healthcare. The UH Office of Community Impact, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion created this scholarship program for for underrepresented medical students to provide them with hands-on exposure to the multitude of career opportunities at our academic medical center. Interested EM applicants can complete a 4-week Acting Internship between July-October with our Department as part of this program.
Check out their webpage ( David Satcher Clerkship for Underrepresented Minority Students) to learn more details about the clerkship, application information, and requirements.