Assessing Baseline Cultural Sensitivity Among Employees at a Hospital System: A Mixed-Methods Approach

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International and national organizations both public and private have thoroughly documented that health disparities are experienced by racial and ethnic minorities (Meyers, 2007; Nelson, 2002; Wilkinson & Marmot, 2003). These disparities occur in an alarming number of contexts across healthcare disciplines including pediatrics (Hahn, 1995), paramedic and ambulatory medicine (Ebell & Smith, 1995), cardiology (Croft et al., 1999; Daumit, Hermann, Coresh, & Powe, 1999), nursing (Orque, 1983), and oncology (Barber et al., 1998). Furthermore, disparities have been identified in analyses of patient satisfaction (Auslander, Thompson, Dreitzer, & Santiago, 1997), access to services (Flores, Abreu, Olivar, & Kastner, 1998), message design (Engleberg & Flora, 1997), health literacy (Bernhardt & Cameron, 2003), and environmental design (Tucker et al., 2003). The variety of these contexts indicates that members of racial and ethnic minorities experience health disparities beyond the patient-physician dyad.