Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center was recently recognized as one of only 29 hospitals nationwide to have successfully completed “National Initiative V: Improving Community Health and Health Equity through Medical Education.” The hospital was honored for its independent project aimed at improving knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about healthcare disparities in resident physicians.
“Our participation in this initiative speaks to our leadership as an academic medical center, and our commitment to improving graduate medical education on a national scale, and we are proud of the work we have accomplished to further improve physician training and healthcare for patients,” said Laurinda Calongne, EdD, chief academic officer for Our Lady of the Lake.
Our Lady of the Lake has been engaged in National Initiative V since 2015, when it was selected to participate, based upon a demonstrated commitment to better understand and reduce health disparities in the Baton Rouge community. Since then, a team consisting of residents and faculty from pediatric, internal medicine, emergency medicine, psychiatry, general surgery, and ENT residency programs have been working on a project aimed at incorporating education about healthcare disparities into physician training.
“Resident physicians are at the forefront of delivering care to patients in the communities where they train, but are often limited in their preparedness to deal with various healthcare disparities,” explained Calongne. “The multi-year project we completed as part of National Initiative V sought to educate residents, and engage them in exploring specific barriers to care faced by their patients.”
Healthcare disparities are social, economic, or environmental differences that can impact health outcomes of specific populations. They may include level of income, education, gender, ethnicity, and geographic location.
"As part of the project, Our Lady of the Lake team leaders used patient scenarios to educate residents on health disparities specific to the communities where our patients live,” said Rachel Bernard, DO, pediatric resident physician. “As a result, both resident objective knowledge and subjective impression about the importance of these disparities in our practice improved and will ultimately lead to enhanced quality of care for our patients.”
Twenty-nine AIAMC-member hospitals and health systems were selected to participate in National Initiative V, each focusing on a different project aimed at identifying and addressing healthcare gaps in communities across the nation. Our Lady of the Lake and the other institutions were honored at the recent AIAMC Annual Meeting in Amelia Island, Fla.
“The work of our 29 member institutions has been inspiring and impactful,” said Kimberly Pierce-Boggs, AIAMC Executive Director. “Our Lady of the Lake represents the best of forward-thinking academic medical centers that proactively address community health needs, while at the same time, reform residency training by involving trainees directly in community-based initiatives.”
The National Initiative V is the only national and multi-institutional collaboration of its kind among hospitals across the country in which resident physicians lead local quality improvement teams to improve healthcare for patients. Fifty-eight hospitals and health systems, and nearly 700 individuals, have participated in the AIAMC National Initiatives since 2007, and have driven change that resulted in meaningful and sustainable outcomes, which improved the quality and safety of patient care. Pictured from left, are team members Drs. Kathleen Crapanzano, Carine Nzodom, Keith Hynes, Laurinda Calongne, Rebecca Horn, Rachel Bernard, Diane Kirby, and Roberta Vicari.