Case Study Heritage Valley Medical Center

Background statement:
Heritage Valley Medical Center has had a wonderful reputation for providing excellent health care services to their community. Initially, their community was 80% Caucasian, 40% African American, and 5% Hispanic. However, in the last 5 years, the population has changed to more minorities and the whites have moved out to the suburbs. This caused the Center’s occupancy rate to go down 40% because many of their traditional, more affluent, private-pay patients had left the neighborhood. To bring in revenue, they campaigned to bring in more Medicaid patients. By the third year, their patient increased from 10% to 40%. Many are African Americans and Hispanics. The staff, however doesn’t reflect the patients’ diversity. The staff is 85% Caucasian, including nurses, laboratory technologies, pharmacists, and therapists. There are two African American and one Hispanic managers. The executive management staff was 100% white and the support and administrative team were 100% Afrincan American. In a recent survey, only 30% of blacks, 10% of Hispanics and 20% of Asians were very satisfied with their services, compared to 80% of Caucasians. They said they didn’t feel welcomed and nobody understood them. The manager staff had a lot to say back, revealing subconscious racism and bias towards the minority patients, and even toward each other. The problem must be addressed.

Identification of diversity issues and their impact in this case:
● There is a diversity issue.
○ The minority patients do not feel welcomed and have a hard time with the staff.
○ The staff has a hard time communicating with patients
○ The staff has hidden animosity and racism towards each other.
● There is an education