Learn more about the HLC project advisors:
Romana Hasnain-Wynia, PhD, Project Advisor
Romana Hasnain-Wynia, PhD, is Director, Center for Healthcare Equity and Research Associate Professor at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. Prior to joining Northwestern University, Romana was the Vice President of research for the Health Research and Educational Trust, the research and educational affiliate of the American Hospital Association. Romana is an expert in health care disparities research and serves as the principal investigator for a number of national studies examining use of patient demographic data in addressing disparities and improving health care quality for diverse populations. In addition, Romana is the Co-Principal Investigator of the project, Assessing the Impact of the CMS Pay for Performance Initiative (P4P) by Simulating Alternative Quality Scoring Methods. She serves on a number of national expert advisory panels and is currently a senior advisor to The Joint Commission project, Hospitals, Language and Culture: A Snapshot of the Nation and to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s national initiative to reduce disparities in cardiac care, Expecting Success: Excellence in Cardiac Care. Romana is Senior Associate Editor for the journal, Health Services Research.
Elizabeth A. Jacobs, MD, MPP, Project Advisor
Elizabeth Jacobs, MD, MPP, is a Clinician-Researcher and Assistant Professor of Medicine at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County and Rush Medical College. She trained as a general internist and completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellowship at the University of Chicago. After struggling to care for limited English-speaking patients during medical school and residency, she decided to pursue a research career investigating minority disparities in health care. As an RWJ fellow, she demonstrated that adequate interpreter services can reduce disparities in delivery of health care between English and non-English-speaking persons. Dr. Jacobs used this study to investigate the balance of costs and benefits of providing interpreter services. She recently completed the Language Barriers in Health Care Settings: An Annotated Bibliography of the Research Literature, funded by The California Endowment. She has been invited to serve on the Hablamos Juntos Scholar’s Network and several OMH advisory committees addressing the provision of interpreter services and culturally appropriate health care. She is the recipient of two grants from the National Cancer Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the relationship between general trust in physicians and health care institutions and its impact on cancer screening among minority men and women.
Sunita Mutha, MD, Project Advisor
Sunita Mutha, MD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco. Her work focuses on educational and organizational approaches to addressing health disparities and improving the quality of care for diverse populations. In her recent projects focusing on assisting safety net hospitals, she collaboratively works to apply rapid cycle improvement methods to efforts to reduce cultural and linguistic barriers to care. She is the lead author of the nationally distributed curriculum, “Toward Culturally Competent Care: A Toolbox for Teaching Communication Strategies.” She has expertise in designing and presenting cultural competency programs for clinicians and frontline staff and is a frequent speaker on the topics of health disparities and cross-cultural care. Dr. Mutha completed her residency and chief residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars program at Stanford University. A practicing general internist, she is also actively involved in educational activities for primary care residents and she has been the recipient of several teaching awards.
Felicia A. Batts, MPH, Project Advisor
Felicia Batts, MPH, is the President and CEO of Consulting By Design. She has worked with national clients, such as the Health Resources and Services Administration conducting cultural competency training sessions and providing technical assistance to various HRSA grantees: area health education centers, community health centers, HIV/AIDS centers, maternal, child health programs, state health departments and various health care providers from around the country. Having worked in the private, public and nonprofit sectors, Ms. Batts specializes in the area of organizational cultural competency and has worked with federal and state clients to provide technical assistance and guidance for compliance with various regulatory requirements and accreditation standards relative to cultural competency. As part of the national Industry Collaboration Effort (ICE), Ms. Batts served as the founding chair for the Cultural and Linguistic Services Workgroup, where she was responsible for streamlining compliance with requirements from the Office of Civil Rights, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, California State Department of Health Services and others, for over 100 committee members.
All of the HLC project advisors are also members of the HLC Technical Advisory Panel.
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For more information on the Hospitals, Language, and Culture study or to sign up for the HLC list serve, contact us at hlc-info@jointcommission.org. |