Anti-Racism Task Force Goals

Alliance for Minority Physicians

It is the goal of Penn Medicine + CHOP  Alliance of Minority Physicians to work in partnership with Penn Medicine and CHOP leadership along with Community leaders to exercise the following calls to action:

A.   Foster ongoing, authentic dialogue about race, racism, and anti-blackness. We must recognize individual bias and gain concrete anti-racist skills. This should include mandated:

  1.  Annual anti-racism and cross-cultural communication training for all employees
  2.  Annual incorporation of health-disparities/racism/anti-racism topics in departmental journal club articles and grand rounds topics
  3.  Uniform recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a federal holiday across all health system entities
  4.  Annual “community grand rounds” to hear directly from the West and Southwest Philadelphia community on topics broadly related to health

B. Eliminate long-standing institutional racism at Penn/CHOP. We must broadly examine how resources and
opportunities are distributed. At a minimum, the following actions are needed:

    5.  Require all departments to establish and adequately support a Vice Chair of Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism that reports to the Chair and ensures accountability across clinical, research, and educational programs and initiatives (including oversight over all faculty hires and final residency/fellowship rank list)

    6.  Review and address patterns of hiring, retention, promotion, and leadership opportunities for all faculty, and create a plan to address racial and gender disparities

    7.  Ensure a fully transparent and equitable compensation policy for all employee positions across race and gender that is assessed and reported on annually

    8.  Create a system to investigate/rectify patient, trainee, and employee complaints of racism and microaggressions

    9.  Ensure a living wage and opportunities for advancement for all Penn/CHOP staff

    10.  Provide financial support and academic recognition to faculty for work on diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism activities

    11.  Provide Black and Latinx residents funding and approved time to attend UIM-focused professional society annual meetings pertaining to their specialty, even if not presenting

    12.  Increase Alliance of Minority Physicians funding to continue to support vital mentoring, professional development, programing and networking for students, housestaff and faculty

    13.  Create a system of departmental and institutional accountability for racial disparities in patient outcomes

    14.  Re-examine the ways in which the Philadelphia Police Department interfaces with patients and providers during the provision of clinical care

Oversight for the implementation of these actions should be the responsibility of a newly created Anti-Racism Task Force at each institution. The Task Force would create a 5-year strategic plan to implement these and other actions, with clear metrics of success, a system of transparency and accountability, and consequences for inaction. To succeed, the Task Forces will need: (1) A written commitment from leadership to implement the strategic plan, (2) Access to ALL data and policies across patient care, research, and education, and (3) Money for faculty effort, a project manager, a data scientist, and other support as needed.

C. Partner with community leaders and organizations to tackle deeply entrenched structural barriers impeding the health of West and Southwest Philadelphia’s Black communities. Rampant racial health disparities, the result of longstanding structural racism, are in our backyard. We must reimagine what it means to be a healthcare organization committed to addressing structural barriers to health and co-leading these efforts with the community. We call on our institutions to:

    15.  Develop research funding mechanisms to support the development of interventions to address structural
racism and health
    16.  Establish an annual investment fund for community interventions targeting structural barriers such as
housing, education, criminal justice, and neighborhood environment.
    17.  Create wealth building opportunities for Black and Latinx communities through financial health education,
examining local procurement practices, and job training programs

Penn Medicine + CHOP Alliance of Minority Physicians                                                                   http://www.allianceofminorityphysicians.org/                                                                                                                amp.uphs.chop@gmail.com | @AMP_UPHSCHOP