Ensuring People with Disabilities Fit into Health Equity Goals
Patient-provider communication and empathy are essential for achieving health equity for people with disabilities.
Source: Getty Images
By Sara Heath
- When it comes to health equity for patients with physical and developmental disabilities, communication is key.
The disparities affecting this population are well documented. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), people with disabilities have an increased risk of premature death or illness. And that disparity isn’t necessarily because of an underlying illness; it’s often because of inequity in healthcare.
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There are many considerations healthcare organizations can make when treating a population with disabilities, according to Colin O’Reilly, DO, FAAP, FACOP, FCCM, vice president and chief medical officer at Children's Specialized Hospital, an RWJBarnabas Health hospital that treats mostly kids with physical and developmental disabilities.
While the organization has fine-tuned its built environment and social determinants of health screening and referral procedures, it’s been the way it communicates that’s truly impacted health equity for its population, O’Reilly said in an episode of the Healthcare Strategies podcast.
“These kids need a different level of understanding and health anticipation for what they're going to need in the future,” he explained.
Most of the children O’Reilly and his team of providers see at Children’s Specialized Hospital have more than one disease or specific diagnosis, and that leads to them seeing a complex web of specialists.
“And once you get to that complexity of care, you need to have really enhanced communication. You need to have care coordination,” O’Reilly explained. “And you have different levels of needs and supports for the families and for those children to really make sure that everybody is on the same page and everybody is looking towards that same end goal, which is patient's, what we call, total health.”
But that enhanced communication extends beyond care coordination, O’Reilly added. For one thing, these pediatric patients are not neurotypical, so they will not have the same developmental milestones other pediatricians describe for parents and caregivers.
That means clinicians in O’Reilly’s hospital need to tailor their guidance based on a child’s underlying condition and functional status. Through patient-provider communication and SDOH screening, providers also tailor communication based on family dynamics and access to support.
“It all starts out from a perspective of empathy and compassion for the families,” O’Reilly stated. “You really need to, as the caregiver, take a step back and put yourself in that family's position. And think about all of the complexities of the care that they're dealing with.”
Children’s Specialized Hospital caters specifically to a population of kids with disabilities, but healthcare organizations that treat a broader population, including neurotypical people, should heed similar advice. After all, equity for people with disabilities is a core part of the industry’s total health equity goal.
O’Reilly advised organizations to make sure people with disabilities have a seat at the table in organizational decision-making, like on family and patient advisory councils.
“Invite them into the conversation,” he recommended. “I think that's the most important thing. How many boards do you have, or boards of insurance payers that have people with disabilities who sit in a decision-making capacity? There needs to be a higher representation of this population in entities that are going to really mold how the care is given in the future.”
Correction 08/01/2023: A previous version of this article inaccurately stated that O'Reilly works at Specialized Children's Hospital. It has been updated to reflect that he works at Children's Specialized Hospital.
