Endorsing a Framework and Preferred Practices for Measuring and Reporting Cultural Competency

Purpose

The project seeks to endorse a comprehensive national framework/core competencies for evaluating cultural competency across all healthcare settings, as well as a minimum set of preferred practices based on the framework. 

Background

In 2002, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released the report, Unequal Treatment:  Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, whichfound that racial and ethnic minorities often receive lower quality of care than their white counterparts, even after controlling for factors such as insurance, socioeconomic status, comorbidities, and stage of presentation1.  Efforts to define culturally competent care are already in progress, catalyzed by the Office of Minority Health’s publication of standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) for health care organizations.   One important—though not the sole—contributor to these disparities is a lack of culturally competent care.  Efforts to define culturally competent care are already in progress, but significant knowledge gaps exist about the direct relationship between cultural and linguistic competence and improved health outcomes.  Measurement and reporting are needed to ensure that culturally competent care can be translated into i) improved health outcomes and more patient-centered care for patients, and ii) actionable initiatives for providers that result in meaningful improvement.  While various frameworks have been proposed for cultural competence research or assessment, to bring the cultural competency movement to the next level requires consensus on a framework for measuring and reporting the quality of culturally competent care.  From this framework, preferred practices can be derived and/or performance measures identified (or developed) and endorsed.

Scope

The project will:                        

  • Endorse a comprehensive national framework for evaluating cultural competency across all healthcare settings;
  • Endorse a minimum set of preferred practices for cultural competency based on the framework.  These practices may be specific or overarching—i.e., covering all settings and providers; and
  • Identify high-priority research areas to advance the evaluation of cultural competency as a quality improvement tool.  

The NQF Process

This project, like all NQF activities, involves active participation of representatives from across the spectrum of healthcare stakeholders and will be guided by a Steering Committee through the Consensus Development Process.

Funding

Support for this project has been provided by The Commonwealth Fund and The California Endowment .

For more information, contact Nicole Williams McElveen, MPH, at 202.783.1300 or nmcelveen@qualityforum.org

1Institute of Medicine. Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2002.