Hennepin Healthcare expands health equity department, releases first annual report

The health equity department at Hennepin Healthcare is on a mission to create something its leaders say doesn't yet exist — a system where health outcomes and health care are not influenced by race.

The Hennepin Healthcare system, which includes HCMC, has recently expanded its health equity department from six employees to more than 30. The department this week released its first annual Health Equity report, outlining several efforts taken in 2022 under themes of diversity, equity and inclusion.

"I fully believe that transparency is the only way to make this work," said Nneka O. Sederstrom, Hennepin Healthcare's chief health equity officer. "I want a little bit of a blueprint of our successes and failures. ... No one knows how to do it the right way, but we're going to do our best to show what we're doing."

The 22-page report highlights several initiatives the system launched or expanded last year, including a yearlong program that teaches employees about the history of racism and how systemic racism contributes to health disparities. Senior leaders are currently enrolled, and the goal is to have all 7,000 employees complete the program by 2025.

Other health care systems have expressed interest in replicating the program for their employees, Sederstrom said.

"We are really excited about people seeing this education effort as the model of how to do [diversity and inclusion] efforts the right way," Sederstrom said. "Because the one-and-done touches, the here-and-there conversations aren't going to cut it. It really requires empathy building and behavior modification."

One tangible change patients will notice: Hennepin Healthcare facilities now offer skin and hair products like shampoo, oils and lotions to meet the needs of Black and African American patients.

Sederstrom said making that shift was a "duh moment" for staff who may not have otherwise considered that most of the products for people in inpatient departments were not suitable for Black hair or skin, and patients were having to bring in their own.

"It's that added benefit of us being able to say, 'I see you and what you need,'" Sederstrom said.

The system has also launched nine employee-led affinity groups to help staff feel included and heard and created an email that staff members can use to report perceived racism or microaggressions. Over nine months, 35 emails were received and responded to by the health equity department, which conducts an initial assessment and sets up a meeting to further discuss concerns or ideas.

"[Health care workers] didn't always realize that their inherent bias and doing things the way they always had been doing them was impacting the care they were providing," Sederstrom said. "This awareness is causing immediate responses."

The report encompasses the work done with the smaller team, Sederstrom said, adding that she's excited to see what next year's report will include now that she has a larger department.

"It is really important to not be fake in this work and not be about pomp and circumstance but instead truly show how you can impact people," she said. "We're not the only ones doing great work, but we're being open and vulnerable to say, 'This is what we're doing; now tell us what we need to do.'"