Pilot Implementation of a Health Equity Checklist to Improve the Identification of Equity-Related Adverse Events

OBJECTIVE: To establish a sustainable and trackable process to delineate the role of social determinants of health, bias, and racism in adverse gynecologic events. METHODS: The existing process entails monthly reviews of adverse events. Each case is assessed for preventability, harm, and standards of care. The equity-focused process consists of: 1) creation of a standardized health equity checklist; 2) application of the checklist to each gynecologic adverse event beginning on September 1, 2020; 3) collection of event review data in a secure central digital repository; 4) review of the cases to understand apparent causes of the event; 5) exploration of areas for improvement by using standard fields; and 6) identification of specific ideas for change. RESULTS: Within 15 months, 46 safety events were identified by standard criteria. Twenty-four of the cases were deemed preventable. Of the 24, there were 12 cases in which social determinants of health or bias or both social determinants of health and bias were identified playing a role. Diagnostic delays and care delays were attributed to social determinants of health and implicit bias. Our process has mapped areas of infrastructure as well as the need for culture improvement and has also highlighted the need for restorative work on addressing implicit bias and improving approaches to shared decision making. CONCLUSION: Through the use of a health equity checklist, we have illustrated the feasibility of creating a systematic and trackable process to begin delineating the role of social determinants of health, bias, and racism in adverse gynecologic events.

Automated summary

This study aims to establish a sustainable and trackable process to understand the role of social determinants of health, bias, and racism in adverse gynecologic events. The study used a standardized health equity checklist and evaluated multiple gynecologic adverse events. The results showed that social determinants of health and implicit bias played a significant role in some adverse events.