Frequently Asked Questions about the Health Equity Transformation Assessment

1. Will the Health Equity Transformation Assessment be shared with credentialing, accreditation bodies, State Hospital Associations, or American Hospital Association members?

NO. The Health Equity Transformation Assessment is for your hospital’s self-discovery around your health equity, diversity and inclusion policies and practices and will not be shared with credentialing or accreditation bodies. However, your hospital may choose to voluntarily share its progress or a breakthrough policy or practice on The Journey virtual learning community, to celebrate its advancements along the continuum or to benefit other hospitals and health systems. AHA will not provide a State Hospital Association (SHA) access to your specific information unless you provide written consent. Our SHA partners only receive an aggregate dashboard of the all the members who have completed the HETA and their positions on each of the levers of transformation.

2. Can the Health Equity Transformation Assessment tell us how we compare against other hospitals?

NO. The Health Equity Transformation Assessment is not a benchmark. The Health Equity Transformation Assessment is a diagnostic tool designed to provide individual hospitals with their current position on the health equity journey as part of the AHA’s Health Equity Roadmap. Within a health system, it is up to the system leader to determine how information will be shared across the system. However, IFDHE (Institute for Diversity and Health Equity) has a Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Survey, referred to as the “benchmark survey”. It is administered biennially and is designed to track and trend the entire hospital field’s progress on health equity, diversity and inclusivity.

3. Will we get partial credits in the Health Equity Transformation Assessment for DEI goals in progress or almost complete?

NO. Completing, not just starting equity actions, is the best indicator of transformation. We want to encourage members to perform all the indicators at a position before advancing to the next position. Partial credit would not incentivize the completion of steps towards advancing health equity.

4. Can the completion of ONE Health Equity Transformation Assessment cover the hospitals in our system?

NO. Each community has its own unique set of considerations to advance health equity. However, there may be some operational activities that are centralized at the system level. We encourage hospital leaders and health system leaders to discuss and coordinate how to efficiently respond to the assessment while preserving the integrity of the process to advance equity at the local hospital level.

5. How can system leaders participate in the Health Equity Roadmap and what is the process like?

Open one of your system hospital’s assessments and download a PDF of the HETA. Then, answer those questions that are reflective of system-level responses and send a copy to your respective hospital leaders to answer remaining hospital-level questions. This will ensure that all your hospitals in the system have the same answers that reflect system-level strategies while answering other questions that may differ from one hospital to another. With the release of HETAs to all eligible hospitals on June 5, 2024, individual hospitals within the system should have gotten their welcome email. System leaders can contact us directly at info.equityroadmap@aha.org to request a system dashboard that outlines each hospital's progress on the journey.

6. Should we include hospital patient advocates in responding to the Health Equity Transformation Assessment?

YES. While there are no questions directed at the community stakeholders, the inclusion of patient voices is integral to the health equity transformation journey. Your patient advocate and/or community engagement leader can offer a useful perspective about your hospital’s equity journey.

7. How long does it take to complete the Health Equity Transformation Assessment?

Once the information is collected, the actual submission of the Health Equity Transformation Assessment should take between 1.5 – 2 hours. However, the data collection to support completion of the assessment will require input from a variety of leaders from across the hospital.

8. Is there a due date to complete and submit the Health Equity Transformation Assessment?

While there is no official due date to complete and submit the Health Equity Transformation Assessment, we encourage you to complete and submit the Health Equity Transformation Assessment within 45 days of receiving it.

9. Who should be involved in completing the Health Equity Transformation Assessment?

Depending on the lever, you may need to involve different team members. Review the questions in the Health Equity Transformation Assessment to determine who or which teams could best answer the questions tied to each lever. Below are examples of whom you may include:

Lever of Transformation	Staff You May Include
Equitable and Inclusive Organizational Policies	Human Resources Director
Systemic and Shared Accountability	Chief Operating Officer
Community Collaboration for Solutions	Chief Population Health Officer
Diverse Representation in Leadership and Governance	Chief Executive Officer
Collection and Use of Data to Drive Action	Director, Quality Improvement, Chief Medical Information Officer, Chief Data Officer
Culturally Appropriate Patient Care	Chief Nursing Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Patient Advocate and Community Engagement Lead

10. How can I access the Profile containing the data visualization of the Health Equity Transformation Assessment results?

Refer to the Welcome email that included your organization’s link to the HETA. You will find your unique Profile link there. Please note that it may take up to three weeks after completing the HETA for the link to work. The Profile will show your placement on the continuum for each lever.  

11. Can I retake the HETA to track our progress?

The HETA is only meant to be taken once. To ensure your hospital is making progress towards equity, we have the Transformation Action Planners (TAPs). After you review your Profile results from the assessment, TAPs will help you move across the health equity continuum and track your growth.

12. Do you have any recommendations on how the TAPs should be completed?

Our recommendation would be to select one or two levers to get started. Each TAP is unique to its lever and placement within the continuum and contains discussion questions that are relevant to that specific plan. Based on our records, most hospitals tend to focus on one lever at a time. The overall strategy depends on your organization’s priorities and alignment to your strategic plan.

The TAPs can be submitted once the team feels comfortable with moving forward to the next position within the continuum.

13. How can I track our organization’s progress in the Health Equity Roadmap’s continuum?

We now have a progress tracker page added to the Profile that will help you keep track of your overall journey and progress with the different levers and continuum positions. We are hopeful that you can use these to easily report and present to senior leadership and other team members.

14. Is there an online community for those engaged in the Health Equity Roadmap?

YES. We have an online virtual community, The Journey. It is a supportive virtual space to share information, practices, policies and learnings with others on the equity journey. Please use this link to initiate the registration process to join!