Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Our Mission
To create equitable opportunities for a diverse workforce and foster an inclusive workplace that provides culturally competent care and service of the highest quality to every patient, every time with the goal of health equity for all.
Our Vision
GBMC recognizes the work of fostering healthy diversity, equity and inclusion practices is never over. As a continuous learning organization, we seek to apply those same practices to this work. A mission of health equity for all begins with the people and teams practicing it. By making an intentional commitment to educating our workforce on inclusive practices, both internally and externally, as well as fostering a culture of psychological safety and trust within our teams, we hope to have a workplace built on culturally competent care and equity.
A Message From Our Leadership
At GBMC HealthCare, we are committed to a vision of providing every patient, every time with the care we would want for our own loved ones.
Embedded in this statement is that care is provided to every patient, every time, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information and any other personal characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. Everyone deserves a safe, healing, culturally competent healthcare experience.
We pride ourselves on being a continuous learning organization, and that applies to our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The learning for this type of work is never over, and we embrace this challenge as an opportunity.
At the heart of this vision is our people. Inclusion and diversity of thought spark innovation and inspire us. This requires us to ensure there is an opportunity for everyone to be engaged. As our community evolves, so must we as an organization. From ensuring our practices, processes and procedures reflect current times to fostering an inclusive, psychologically safe environment of trust and respect, we continue to actively evolve goals around important metrics, such as growing diversity in our leadership.
A strong, diverse workforce that feels included and respected and is also reflective of our community will get GBMC closer to our mission of health equity for all. We are committed to active listening to meet the needs of our community and responding with tangible change.
Public health is a right, not a privilege. That is a belief from the very top of our organization and embedded in our strategic objectives, our vision and our work. We are committed to ensuring we do the work to see that through.
Sincerely,
John B. Chessare, MD, MPH
President & CEO
Lisa Walker
Chief Diversity and Learning Officer
DEI Strategic Plan (2021-2024)
In fall 2021, GBMC HealthCare partnered with a third-party talent management consultant group to support the development of an extensive three-year DEI Strategic Plan to address workforce, organization and health equity.
Our goals over the next three years are:
- Continually improve workforce engagement, recruitment, and retention.
- Design and implement a safe and equitable environment for all our workforce
- Establish a systematic process to expand, modify or create new offerings
- Assume accountability for more effectively managing the health of patients
DE&I Scorecard
At GBMC HealthCare, we make our vision bold and clear. We want to provide a safe, healing, culturally competent healthcare experience to every patient, every time with the care we would want for our own loved ones.
Some of our efforts to improve health equity include:
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Maryland Health Equity Resource Act—In 2019, GBMC partnered with Helping Up Mission (HUM) to ensure its growing number of clients received coordinated and comprehensive primary care services.
In 2022, GBMC received a multi-year, $1.5 million grant from the Maryland Community Health Resources Commission (CHRC)*. This funding was awarded under the Maryland Health Equity Resource Act, legislation approved by the Maryland General Assembly. Under the program, GBMC Health Partners Primary Care—Jonestown expanded and the Gilchrist Elder Medical Care (EMC) program provides in-home medical care to residents, focusing on improving preventive healthcare and chronic disease management, specifically hypertension, obesity, and diabetes.
- Maryland Maternal Health Innovation Program Participant (MDMOM)—The MDMOM Hospital Initiative promotes equity and safety through quality improvement activities that address the conditions placing Maryland mothers’ lives at risk. Included in this initiative are learning modules that address implicit bias, the impact of structural racism on maternal health outcomes, and bias in the care of patients with substance use disorder.
- Institute of Healthcare Improvement Participant—IHI’s mission is to improve health and healthcare worldwide. IHI is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and being an anti-racist organization. Ideally, equity, as with all of IHI’s values, is embedded in all systems, processes, and actions. At IHI, holding equity as one of the core values means: We work to develop and maintain systems, policies, and procedures to eliminate gaps in our organization and in our work.
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Health Equality Index Participant—
The Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) is the national LGBTQ+ benchmarking tool that evaluates healthcare facilities' policies and practices related to the equity and inclusion of their LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and employees. The HEI 2022 evaluates more than 2,200 healthcare facilities nationwide.
- Let’s Lead Participant—A Leaders in Equity and Diversity Collaborative through the Maryland Hospital Association brings together healthcare delivery organizations for specific, action-oriented learning, targeting meaningful outcomes and focusing on minority aging populations to live a healthier, productive life.
- Listening Sessions—Listening sessions are 1-2 hour meetings that provide an opportunity to hear directly from patients, staff, families, or other community members. In 2020, the DEI Council worked with the Hospice and Palliative Care Network of Maryland to explore barriers to hospice and palliative care utilization among communities of color in Howard County. To better understand barriers to hospice and primary care, the DEI Council Outreach Committee conducted a listening session series focused on the Jonestown neighborhood in southeast Baltimore City. The DEI Outreach Committee works with leaders in the healthcare system and the broader community to facilitate and consult on listening sessions.
The following are internal activities developed and supported by the DE&I Council at GBMC aim to celebrate GBMC diversity:
- Employee Resource Groups
- Inclusive Hiring Training
- DE&I Cultural Competency Module
- Diversity & Inclusion Talk Line
- Monthly Learning Forums
- Celebrations, Programs, Awards and more!
Celebrations & Programs:
Black History Month program
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day program
Transgender Day of Remembrance
Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Juneteenth program
Women of Impact awards & Women's History Month program
Pride Month & Baltimore Pride Parade
- SWANA Heritage Month
- Mental Health Awareness Month
- Veterans Day
- LGBTQ+ Health Awareness Week
- Hispanic Heritage Month Program
- National Coming Out Day
- Filipino Heritage Month Program
Employee Recognition
Outlasting Clay: Wayman Scott
Awards
- America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity 2023, Newsweek
- 2023 James Rouse Diversity Award Winner
- America’s Greatest Workplaces for Women 2023, Newsweek
- 2023 Award for Women’s Representation, Executive Alliance Honor Roll
- Platinum designation for work on hypertension, Maryland Perinatal-Neonatal Quality Collaborative (MDPQC)
GBMC DEI Sponsorships
The following are external activities supported and sponsored by GBMC HealthCare aimed at celebrating diversity and promoting equity in our community:
- Associated Black Charities
- Baltimore Healing City Summit
- Baltimore Pride
DE&I Team
Lisa Walker
Chief Diversity and Learning Officer
Angela Wu
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Manager
JaRee Walker
Sr. Organization Development and Change Consultant
