Individual and Organizational Self-Assessments - CLAS

Standard 9
"Health care organizations should conduct initial and ongoing organizational self-assessments of CLAS-related activities and are encouraged to integrate cultural and linguistic competence-related measures into their internal audits, performance improvement programs, patient satisfaction assessments, and outcomes-based evaluations."


How do health care organizations develop and implement programs that patients will benefit from?   It is important for organizations to think about who their patients are, what needs do they have based on their health, language, and culture needs.

Why are cultural assessments important? 

• Because it helps identify/define community’s cultural and  linguistic diversity.  
• Because it helps organizations identify what cultural groups are represented in their community.   
• Because it helps to do a self-examination of our own cultural assumptions and generalizations.   
• Because it helps identify available programs, types of services, service providers, and languages spoken.

Cultural assessment at the individual and organizational level provide the opportunity for providers to conduct a self-retrospection of how they perceive patients based on their cultural background and practices.  It also provides the opportunity for patients (if implementing a patient cultural-self assessment) with the opportunity to tell their "story", how they identify themselves, how they take care of their health based on their cultural belief and traditions.  This also helps to have a better understand or to forth see how their medication adherence my play a role in their treatment according to their health practices.

The National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) addresses a variety of methods for individual cultural self-assessment. Checklists, rating scales, instruments, and other tools are typically used in health care, mental health, and human services. Other methods such as self-reflection and self-discovery through journal writing, videotaping, and role playing also are reported, particularly in academic settings and in service training. 

In conclusion, an organization that understands and practices cultural and linguistic appropriate services has a tremendous advantage over other organizations that are not yet paying attention to the growing need of creating a cultural and linguistic  appropriate environment and services for multicultural population, which one of the critical outcomes is to improve quality of care and well being.

Helen Dao, MHA

Health Care Consultant

Dao Consulting Services, Inc.

www.daoconsultingservices.com

201-448-2046