Health Equity: Delivering Care to Diverse Populations

At Children’s Health, we are always working to ensure that our patients have access to the resources, tools, and high-quality care they need to thrive both today and in the future. By recognizing and working to eliminate health disparities, we can further our mission to make life better for children.

What is Health Equity?

Health equity is the fair and just opportunity for everyone to achieve their highest level of health. Health equity means transforming the care we deliver with a goal of closing gaps in care, as well as disparities in outcomes. These results challenge us to make our approach to care culturally effective and linguistically appropriate, eliminating unconscious bias and improving cultural competence.  

At Children’s Health, this means we are always working to ensure that our patients have access to the resources, tools, and high-quality care they need to thrive both today and in the future. By recognizing and working to eliminate health disparities, we can further our mission to make life better for children.

2024 Health Equity Impact Report

We recognize that social, economic and environmental factors have a profound impact on health. Advancing equity requires us to look beyond clinical care and address the broader conditions that shape a child’s well-being.

This inaugural Health Equity Impact Report (pdf) tells the story of our work in 2024. It outlines key milestones, highlights areas of learning and improvement, and reinforces our commitment to sustained, systemwide progress. 

Through groundbreaking work and strategic innovation, our Health Equity team is driving real change by expanding access to equitable, high-quality care and identifying and removing barriers to health that exist beyond the walls of the hospital. 

Healthy People 2030 Champion

In 2024, Children’s Health was named a Healthy People 2030 Champion by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP). The Healthy People 2030 Champion Program addresses our nation’s health priorities, including health disparities and health equity.  Healthy People 2030 Champions are public and private organizations that support the Healthy People 2030 vision to help all people achieve their full potential for health and well-being across the lifespan. Children’s Health received this distinction for our various health equity related initiatives, including screening for Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), addressing health literacy, removing language barriers, connecting with community organizations and more. 

The American Hospital Association Equity of Care Pledge

Children’s Health signed on to the Equity of Care Pledge (#123forEquity) in 2016, a national campaign committed to eliminating health care disparities. The #123forEquity campaign asks hospital and health care system leaders to take action to accelerate progress to improve health equity. We are among only 1,704 health care systems nationwide, and only 131 in Texas, who have committed to addressing disparities by making the Equity of Care Pledge. Children’s Health is committed to ensuring that all of our patients have the opportunity to achieve their highest level of health. By working to improve health equity in North Texas, we can make life better for children and the communities where they live.  Below is a snippet of the work being done in this area:  

• Research and Data Collection: Our goal is to invest in research and data to understand the health inequities that exist for our patients’ community. This includes our Beyond ABC report, collection of REaL and social determinants of health (SDOH) data for our patients, and our Health Equity Impact Report.   

• Workforce + Operations: Our nearly 10,000 team members have access to education, training and programs dedicated to identifying, understanding, and addressing health inequities in our patient population.  

• Care for Underserved Patients and Communities: We are a leader in health equity because we care for patients and communities in North Texas including some of the most vulnerable, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Social Determinants of Health  

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. According to the World Health Organization, these circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power, and resources at a global, national, and local levels. 

Screening  

The Health Equity team in collaboration with clinical and non-clinical teams across the health system have developed a standardized social determinants of health screening process. Screening for social determinants of health helps the system identify specific needs of an individual patient. At Children’s Health, we currently screen for seven (6) SDOH domains: 

1. Financial Insecurity 
2. Food Insecurity 
3. Health Literacy 
4. Housing Quality & Insecurity 
5. Social Support 
6. Transportation Insecurity 

Patient families with a positive screen in any of these domains will receive a list of community resources related to those needs and if requested, a member of our social work or care management team will reach out with more targeted intervention.

Children’s Health is proud to offer the Community Assistance Hub, a free, easy-to-use online tool that connects patients and families with resources in their own communities – from food and housing to transportation, employment and more. 

Children’s Health Community Assistance Hub

In addition to the vital work of our Social Work team, Children’s Health has launched several targeted initiatives to address the social needs of our patients. Outpatient families experiencing food insecurity are now connected to the Weight Management team, who specialize in helping families navigate unmet food needs. We’ve also launched an inpatient pilot that provides food vouchers to patients who screen positive for food insecurity. And for those who indicate a need for social support, a referral is automatically sent to our Spiritual Care team, who will connect with patients during their hospital stay, or follow up by phone if they’ve already been discharged. At Children’s Health, we care about our patients’ needs and are here to help them find the resources, tools and care they need to be as healthy as possible. 

Race, Ethnicity, and Language (REaL) Data Collection

To begin diminishing health disparities in and around our health system, we had to first understand who our patients are. Our goal is to have a systematic approach to eliminating unconscious biases when identifying the patients we serve. One step in addressing health care disparities and improving patient outcomes is stratifying patient data by race, ethnicity and language. At Children’s Health, we instituted a REaL data training program that focuses on the importance of collecting accurate information. As a result, we have been able to train our registration staff on the collection of self-reported race, ethnicity, and language (REaL) data which led to a 50% reduction in errors in this information.

Distribution of Patient Race/Ethnicity, Dallas, 2024

Distribution of Patient Race/Ethnicity, Plano, 2024

With the data collected, we were able to create Patient Demographic Dashboards that highlight the uniqueness of our patients. These dashboards help us to understand the health and social factors affecting communities by location and service line. 

Research and Publications

Health equity research is essential in examining the underlying causes of health disparities, with the goal of identifying and addressing the systemic and structural factors that lead to health inequities. By understanding the root causes of health inequities, this research can inform policies and interventions that address social determinants of health, by identifying the most effective strategies to improve health outcomes in underserved populations.   Ultimately, investing in health equity research is critical to promoting health and wellbeing for all individuals and communities, regardless of their background or circumstances, resulting in reduced health disparities for all, promotion of health equity in our communities, and the building of a more just and equitable society.  

• "SDOH Pediatric Families" by Katelyn K. Jetelina, Patricia Rodriguez et al. (tmc.edu) 

• ERIC - EJ1271166 - Factors Influencing the Implementation of Social Determinants of Health Screening and Referral Processes in Pediatric Settings Serving Medically Complex Patients, Journal of Applied Research on Children, 2020 

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0891524523003462 

Community Health Initiatives

At Children’s Health we collaborate with community health partners like federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and other community clinics to enhance medical care for those who need it most. These partnerships allow for continuing innovation to reduce gaps in care, create a seamless delivery model for vulnerable patient populations and address health disparities.

In order to address health disparities, we lead efforts in clinical and non-clinical programming, advocacy, partnerships, sponsorship and community investment.

Children's Health by findhelp - Search and Connect to Social Care

Medical Explorers Day

Medical Explorers Day is a program that reflects the Children's Health mission to make life better for children by introducing health careers to students within historically under-resourced zip codes. This recurring event is designed to inspire children to discover and explore different careers within the medical field by interacting with physicians, nurses and allied health experts in a fun way. Through hands-on activities and simulations, students learn about roles in health care and what it’s like to work within the field, hopefully igniting an interest in a future career in healthcare.

Community Resource Fair

Community Resource Fairs are events that provide families with the opportunity to connect directly with local community-based organizations offering essential support services. Rooted in our commitment to addressing the social determinants of health (SDOH), these fairs serve as a vital bridge between patient needs and the community partners equipped to meet them.

Health Equity In Action

Children’s Health is investing in healthier tomorrow for the communities we serve through strategic collaborations within the health system and in the broader community. As we continue to advance the mission of making lives better for children, we are addressing the root causes that are tied to social determinants of health.

Virtual Care

Through this program, we connect patients to comprehensive care through online visits. At Children’s Health, we offer convenient access to non-emergency pediatric care through platforms that allow patients to consult with our network of board-certified physicians and pediatricians. Family can utilize these resources to seek medical care from the convenience of their homes.

Language and interpreter services

Our Language Interpreter Services has team members on staff, providing in-person assistance well as phone and video remote interpreters for patients and families whose primary language is not English.

Spiritual Care and Education

Naturally, when a child faces medical challenges, family and friends may turn to their faith for comfort. At Children’s Health, we respect that, and we want those patients and families of all religions and faith traditions.

Family advisory network (FAN)

Feedback is important - it allows us to make our patient experience more inclusive. One crucial source of feedback is our Family Advisory Network or FAN, which helps ensure that current and former patients and families feel heard. This collaborative network provides unique perspectives and experiences, allowing us to improve care and overall experiences.

School-Based Telehealth

Through this program, we connect hundreds of school nurses and their students with our providers to care for sick children while they are in school. These schools are located throughout the metroplex including urban and rural. This is how we expand high-quality healthcare access to our patients beyond the walls of our hospitals and clinics.

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)

The Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) program helps children with complex medical needs to reduce the number of trips they have to make to the hospital for follow-up visits. For a family that has to travel hundreds of miles to reach our specialists, this type of access can be life-altering.

Resources to help families

At Children's Health, we recognize that life can be unpredictable. If you or your loved ones are currently facing a health crisis or any urgent situation, please know that you are not alone. Search and connect to social care support via Children’s Health Community Assistance Hub, a collaboration with FindHelp. You’ll discover services like food, housing, and financial services that are free or available at a reduced cost.

Connect to Help

• Step 1: Search (Type in your zip code)

• Step 2:Find (Locate services by your category or keyword)

• Step 3: Connect (Connect with programs that can help you)

If you need help with finding resources, please call the Social Work department at 214-456-2300