Culturally Competent Health CareAs medical professionals, we know the challenges of keeping up with more appropriate and effective health care. It has long been acknowledged that patients' different health beliefs and communication styles play critical roles in medical care, influencing how they seek health care and how they react toward health care providers. This can affect not only patient satisfaction, but clinical outcomes as well. Demographics are changing rapidly throughout our state, and not all Arkansans are benefiting equally from delivery of quality care. Addressing the needs of an increasingly diverse population has become a major challenge for physicians. With growing concerns about racial and ethnic disparities in health and the need for health care systems to accommodate increasingly diverse patient populations, cultural competence has become more and more a matter of concern and attention. AFMC is dedicated to helping physicians understand, confront and improve accessibility, utilization and the quality of care received by our diverse patient population. Free cultural competency training is available through a Web-based training program offered by the Office of Minority Health (OMH) that allows physicians and their staffs to complete up to nine continuing medical education credits at their convenience in their homes or offices. Why Cultural Competency Training Physician and clinician offices will have the opportunity to:
AFMC encourages physicians and clinicians to work on provider and practice site system changes related to CLAS and cultural competency. Interested in participating in the CLAS initiative? Please log on to www.thinkculturalhealth.org. Questions Contact the Physician Office Team at 877-375-5700 or physicianoffice@afmc.org. |
Cultural Competency |
