AccentCare, one of the nation's largest post-acute health providers, released its organizational demographic data for the first time, in an effort to encourage transparency with diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in healthcare.
 
The data, available in an infographic on the provider's website details the gender, ethnicity, and even generational groups (ex. GenX, millenials, GenZ) its almost-30,000 workforce belonged to for the year 2021.Its DEI index rating is currently 74%, and the infographic notes that the company’s goal is to achieve an 80% or above rating.
 
Rafael Fantauzzi serves as AccentCare's first chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, having DEI experience from working in the travel industry, consumer packaged goods, and civil rights advocacy nonprofits. At the end of the day, he said, it's all about people.
 
"The reason I wanted to be involved with the [previous] civil rights [nonprofit] is to really understand what the community needs, so that I can become that bridge between corporate America and the community to be able to be more effective," he told HealthLeaders. "And understand more clearly how to break down those barriers of inequality that exist in our society."
 
Fantauzzi credits Catalyst, a women's advocacy group for gender equality, for the formula AccentCare is following in its DEI work: belongingness + uniqueness = inclusion.
 
Belongingness: "It's a human need that we all have to want to belong to something greater than who we are as individuals. That's the culture of the organization and we can measure that."
 
Uniqueness: "That's the real work around diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is trying to make sure that we celebrate people for their individuality. People are more than just a gender, a professional career, a faith, an ethnicity, or race."
 
Inclusion: "The work that entails is to make sure that as an organization we validate who you are, all the different things that you are, as best as we can, and that's relevant to our customers as well.
 
Providers  supply better care once they understand the needs each person has as an individual, Fantauzzi explained.
 
Prior to and particularly after the pandemic, healthcare has increased efforts to tackle its inequities, especially as it relates to the quality of care being provided. In making its organizational demographic data available to the public, AccentCare is following through on its DEI efforts, while encouraging other providers and competitors to follow their model of transparency.
 
"I think it’s an encouragement to my counterparts in other organizations for us to work together toward trying to increase the workforce pipeline," he said, "but also to elevate the quality of service because when we are intentional about including folks that are in our communities, we will service [them] better."
 
"That we're a company that is respectful to our employees, we don't just see each individual as a number or medical staff, we see individuals for who they are and if people feel comfortable," he said. "If people feel that they belong in our organization, then they're able to bring that innovation and their passion also to our workplace so that we can actually provide better care."
 
The article was first published at HealthLeaders, a sibling publication of Home Health Line. Read more at https://www.healthleadersmedia.com.