title: Why and how six aligning forces for quality communities have focused on reducing disparities.
abstract: Public reports on provider performance can help guide consumers' health care decisions, yet consumer awareness and use of public reports is low and may be even lower among racial/ethnic minorities. In this qualitative research article, we describe activities implemented by multi-stakeholder alliances in six U.S. communities to increase minorities' awareness of public reports. We also describe alliances' motivation for deliberately targeting greater awareness among minorities. We found that alliances' decision was influenced by the proportion of minorities and perceptions of race-based disparities in care in the community. To raise awareness, alliances collaborated with minority-serving organizations to (a) advertise their web-based public report using ethnic media outlets, (b) present their public reporting website during health education outreach events held in minority communities, and (c) translate their public report into multiple languages. We conclude that community partnerships are a promising mechanism for targeting efforts to increase awareness of public reports in minority communities.
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA j-yonek@northwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Juliet C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Yonek
authors.affiliation: The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Jessica N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Mittler
authors.affiliation: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA The work on this manuscript was conducted while Dr. Hasnain-Wynia was Director for the Center for Health Care Equity at Northwestern University.
authors.forename: Romana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hasnain-Wynia
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008913:Minority Groups; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States
keywords: disparities; minority groups; public reporting