Second National Conference on
Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations:
Strategy and Action for Communities, Providers, and a Changing Health System

1-1. Roles Of Governing Boards In Providing Care To Culturally Diverse Communities

LA Care Health Plan

Brief Description
To best equip a board to make culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate decisions for a culturally diverse populations, the board itself must reflect not only the diversity of the community it serves, but also include the community in its decision-making processes.

Successes/Innovative Approaches
LA Care's greatest promise lies in its relationships to the community its serves. The structure of LA Care model allows for the inclusion of all stakeholders involved in the health care delivery system - health plan members, advocates, providers, health plans, other health care professionals and community groups -a voice in the policy making process.

Advising the board are three Public Advisory Committees: the Technical Advisory Committee, Children's Health Consultant Advisory Committee and the Executive Community Advisory Committee, representing the participation of member advocates, health plan members and medical providers. Each has the right to place items on the board's agenda, giving advisory committees the ability to shape LA Care's policy agenda.

In particular, LA Care has an extensive network of consumer advisory committees reflecting the cultural and linguistic diversity throughout Los Angeles County. Few, if any, health plans or companies have this kind of consumer representation on their board of directors, or have the level of direct community input that helps shape LA Care.

Challenges
In an environment where scarce resources are limited, health plans like LA Care must balance the organization's commitment to cultural diversity/competence and the fiscal solvency of the health plan's operations.

Lessons Learned
A governance structure, which embraces consumer participation and community empowerment even with the noblest intentions, can be challenging, but ultimately worthwhile.

Ms. Carrie Broadus, a longtime health care advocate for the vulnerable and underserved has over 20 years of professional experience in community affairs, advocacy and health planning. Ms. Broadus' advocacy for diverse populations, has earned her both recognition and credibility from her peers. In September, 2000, Ms. Broadus was re-elected by health plan members to serve as the consumer advocate representative on the board of governors of LA Care Health Plan, a public HMO serving over 575,000 Medicaid beneficiaries and Children's Health Insurance Program participants in Los Angeles County.

Ms. Broadus has worked with countless local, state and federal agencies and organizations to advocate for the African American and Latino communities of South Central Los Angeles including the Minority AIDS Project, Los Angeles County Second Supervisorial District, WattsHealth Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, LA Care Health Plan's Regional Community Advisory Committee, Office of Women's Health, US Public Health Service; and Los Angeles County Prevention Planning Committee.

Carrie Broadus
Consumer Advocate, Board of Governors
LA Care Health Plan
3530 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 700
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Phone: (213) 251-8300
Fax: (213) 637-3021
Email: Cbaq11@aol.com
http://www.lacare.org

Memorial Health University Medical Center, Savannah, GA

This presentation on cultural diversity concentrates on a number of issues in fostering community-wide healthcare, while at the same time having vigilance and concern for fiduciary responsibility. The presenter speaks of various activities of Memorial Health University Medical Center of Savannah, Georgia. In addition, the presenter incorporates his experience as a consultant in fostering diversity programs for organizations and businesses.

The presenter takes a broad approach to the subject matter and discusses strategically, among other things, the economics of diversity, the politics of diversity, relationship building in support of diversity programs and activities, diversity assumptions, and corporate sensitivity.

Charles F. McMillan, Sr. is Managing Partner of McMillan and Associates, a management and performance improvement consultant firm located in Savannah, Georgia. The firm specializes in strategic planning, motivation, leadership and conflict resolution. Charles McMillan has over 30 years of organizational development, leadership and management experience. Mr. McMillan is the past regional director for an eight-state regional business development program for the US Department of Commerce.

The presenter is the past board chair of Memorial Health University Medical Center, Savannah, Georgia. Presently, he is chairman of the system's governance committee, and holds membership on the following system committees: risk management, management liaison (this committee monitors, oversees and negotiates the management contract with the system's management company), and the committee on professional affairs. He currently serves as chair of the system's Captive (Memorial Professional Assurance Corporation).

Memorial Health is a Level I trauma and tertiary healthcare organization serving a 35-county area in southeast Georgia and southern South Carolina. The system includes a 530-bed hospital, an eye institute, an ear institute, a children's hospital with a Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery, the region's only emergency air ambulance, and operates a two-state home health agency. Memorial Health University Medical Center is a major teaching hospital and is the clinical campus of Mercer University School of Medicine. The system is the second largest provider of indigent healthcare services in the State of Georgia.

Charles F. McMillan, Sr.
McMillan and Associates
Past Board Chair
Memorial Health University Medical Center,
7 Drayton Street, Suite 410
Savannah, GA 31401

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