DEI Institutionalization in Health Care Organizations: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?

Abstract

Following the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent summer of racial reckoning of 2020, organizations in all industries have sought to address their efforts towards diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), seeking to address DEI through intense focus on equitable hiring practices, fairness in compensation and promotion, and public support of social justice and progress. In health care organizations (HCO), in particular, an additional call to action emerged as reports of race-based disparities in healthcare outcomes throughout the global COVID-19 pandemic. These reports confirmed a decades-long scholarly exploration of health care disparities in the U.S. Health Care System, and the insufficient progress in achieving equitable health outcomes that followed. Given the decades of inaction, or insufficient action, on these important issues preceding the summer of racial reckoning, there is concern regarding the sustainability of DEI initiatives. It remains a question whether DEI initiatives are a sustainable aspect of organizational reality or if addressing these issues is a trend or fad. The purpose of this panel symposium is to discuss the exploration of DEI institutionalization in health care organizations. The panel brings together a group of scholars who have each previously examined the influence of DEI-related concepts on various aspects of health care organizations. The symposium will foster a collaborative conversation to provide fruitful discussion around these concepts and the need for continued exploration within HCOs. We believe that a growing body of healthcare management researchers are motivated to engage in DEI research and the ultimate pursuit of health equity, and each of these scholars’ previous engagements with DEI topics in HCOs uniquely qualify them to contribute to the panel and to advance scholarship in this worthy domain.