Bergen New Bridge Medical Center has partnered with America’s Essential Hospitals and nine other health systems to create “Building Workforce Equity at Essential Hospitals: A Toolkit for Creating and Maintaining a Resilient, Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive Workforce.”
The toolkit from the Essential Hospitals Institute shares concepts for mitigating the critical hospital labor workforce shortage while building workforce equity and resilience. It includes tools, tips and resources for hospitals at all stages of their equity journey to work toward system-level change and health justice. It was created with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and was developed with input from an expert panel, thought partners and leaders from 10 hospitals including Bergen New Bridge.
The toolkit further spotlights Essential Hospitals’ efforts to plan for and build workforce equity through organizational change, align workforce equity with patient care and measure progress toward equity goals.
Bergen New Bridge Medical Center CEO Deborah Visconi praised the team’s continuing efforts around the health care community.
“Bergen New Bridge has been dedicated to improving equity and addressing disparities not only for our patients but for our workforce,” said Visconi. “I am grateful to our team who have created a welcoming environment that safeguards equity, inclusion, dignity and respect for all.”
Bergen New Bridge Medical Center Chief Quality and Equity Officer Shari Gold said it was valuable being one of the first in the state with the distinction.
“We were one of the first hospitals in New Jersey and the country to earn the Joint Commission’s Advanced Health Care Equity Certification,” she said. “The process required us to look at not only a patient’s experience, but how we could improve equity in our workforce as well. This was a valuable process, and we were happy to share the knowledge we gained in the creation of this important toolkit.”
The other participating health systems included:
- Baystate Health;
- Eskenazi Health;
- ECMC;
- NYC Health + Hospitals;
- Parkland Health;
- The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center;
- UChicago Medicine;
- University Health;
- Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
