The role of cultural competency training to address health disparities in surgical settings.

Abstract

Disparities in health care delivered to marginalized groups are unjust and result in poor health outcomes that increase the cost of care for everyone. These disparities are largely avoidable and health care providers, have been targeted with education and specialised training to address these disparities. In this manuscript we have sought out both peer-reviewed material on Pubmed, as well as policy statements on the potential role of cultural competency training (CCT) for providers in the surgical care setting. The goal of undertaking this work was to determine whether there is evidence that these endeavours are effective at reducing disparities. The unjustness of health care disparities is universally accepted. Whether the outcome of CCT justifies the cost has not been effectively answered. These include the structure/content of the CCT and whether the training should be delivered to teams in the surgical setting. Because health outcomes are affected by many different inputs, should the effectiveness of CCT be improvement in health outcomes or should we use a proxy or a surrogate of health outcomes.