Star Tribune and Twin Cities PBS showcases how Children’s Minnesota is tackling racial health disparities

Children’s Minnesota made headlines in the Star Tribune and Twin Cities PBS with in-depth interviews focused on how our health care system is facing racial disparities head-on. The stories feature James Burroughs, vice president, chief equity and inclusion officer, and Dr. Gabrielle Hester, medical director of quality improvement at Children’s Minnesota.

“One of the things that I learned a long time ago [is that] what gets measured, gets done,” said Burroughs to the Star Tribune.

The stories showcase data shared in a paper published by Dr. Hester and others at Children’s Minnesota in the journal “Pediatrics,” where results from our health equity dashboard were shared publicly, noting significant racial gaps in: offering the Comfort Promise, well-controlled asthma, routine childhood vaccinations and no-show appointments in the clinic.

“I think a lot of institutions are afraid of data like that,” said Dr. Dowin Boatright, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Yale University, to the Star Tribune. “The fact that they’re actually willing to examine themselves and make the data transparent is very courageous.”

“We are a work in progress,” Burroughs said in the interview. “We acknowledge that we need to get better, we’re measuring where we need to get better … we’re going to, on a regular basis, check into where we are with disparities, and most importantly change our behaviors.”

Read the full Star Tribune story here and watch Burroughs discuss Children’s Minnesota’s work to eliminate health disparities on the Twin Cities PBS show, Almanac.