The continuous and meticulous review of alleviating disparities in healthcare based demographic and socioeconomic factors is a growing segment in healthcare services delivery prioritization. There are many tiers to ascertaining the specificities of defining healthcare disparities and what the innate components are. This includes preliminary analyses of disease specific conditions delineated by healthcare services delivery channels and all patient populations affected. Within these systems, diminishing disparities can be managed by developing effective communication channels, quality and performance rewards programs, and methods to determine innovative programs for improvement in all sectors of healthcare.
Definitions of Disparities
There are many sectors that can be grouped into the term disparities, ranging from socioeconomic status, gender, ethnic affiliation, prior medical history, and overall access and level of care. Additionally, how do these get refined within each of these multiple layers so that the reductions of disparities in care not only include improving an overall process as well as creating subsets of programs within main disparate grouping?
Design, Development and Implementation of Programs
Identification of core components of disparate care, affected populations, and disease and treatment modeling offer an initial platform improving an overall infrastructure. Once a disparate need has focus, healthcare provider and payer organizations can work together to ensure that changes in reducing disparities are effective as well as sustainable. Once critical areas and resolution methods have been integrated, the process can include preventive and screening measures, data collection and research, and awareness programs that broaden the scope of disparities reduction.
