Abstract

Statistics from the U. S. Census Bureau continue to demonstrate that the racial and ethnic makeup of many communities is diversifying. In order to provide high-quality, equitable, and culturally sensitive healthcare, many hospitals and health care organizations are responding to their changing patient demographics. The following article will demonstrate how Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) in Allentown, Pennsylvania, had a seemingly minor patient encounter that ultimately was responsible for transforming the health network’s method of delivering high-quality and culturally appropriate care for its diverse patient population. This case study highlights “Bienvenidos,” which started from an interaction with a patient, a play center director, and a physician. This interaction ultimately led to an organizational metamorphosis at one of the health network’s hospital sites that spread across the entire network. We present six key factors that led to this kind of organizational change across the network: 1) Transformational Event(s), 2) Leadership Commitment, 3) Creating a Shared Vision, 4) Assessment and Strategic Program Planning, 5) Engaging Champions, 6) Outcome Measurement and Communication. These steps have led to a reduction in no-show rates and an increase in patient satisfaction. Since “Bienvenidos,” many network-wide strategies, such as explicit employee behavioral expectations regarding respectful interactions across cultures; modification of patient race, ethnicity, and language preference data collection; addition of questions about cultural needs on patient satisfaction surveys; mandatory staff education on diversity and cultural awareness; as well as senior management-level incentive goals, have been put into place that have helped LVHN continue to provide high-quality, culturally appropriate care. This commitment to cultural awareness remains strong—with support from a full-time diversity/cultural awareness liaison, a dedicated physician leader, and a 16-member Cultural Awareness Leadership Council. In these and other ways, respect for difference and cultural awareness has become a part of daily operations and interactions, in many ways because of the initial foundation formed by the “Bienvenidos” initiative.