FOR YOUR
HEALTH NEWS FROM SEQUOIA HEALTHCARE DISTRICT
OCTOBER 2020
Our Commitment to Equality in Health A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO PAMELA KURTZMAN
Keeping the 230,000 residents of the Sequoia Healthcare District informed and engaged in the pursuit of good health is critical for our community. Access to equitable health is fundamental to ensure we are successful. It’s what has driven our decision-making for years, particularly, in how we fund hundreds of great organizations that deliver preventative and proactive care for all members of our diverse community. This year, the District is renewing its long-held commitment to health equality by engaging in a fact-based discussion to find and implement ideas that make us all better. It’s intended to be a healthy discussion, as we always do, to examine our current thinking and processes so we may strengthen our path forward. To start, the Sequoia Healthcare District Board of Directors on Oct. 21 plans a facilitated deep dive into understanding healthcare inequities,
WHAT IS HEALTH EQUITY?
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, health equity is achieved when every person has the opportunity to attain his or her full health potential and no one is disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances. Health inequities are reflected in differences in length of life; quality of life; rates of disease, disability, and death; severity of disease; and access to treatment. One of our primary goals is to achieve health equity by eliminating health disparities and achieving optimal health for all SHD residents.
what they are, how they manifest themselves and how we can be
trained to identify institutional subtleties even in our own decisionmaking. We anticipate multiple training sessions, data gathering and interviews to ensure we speak with shared definitions, use vetted and reliable facts and are listening intently so we accurately support the values of our San Mateo County community. Our expectation is we develop a unified vision to reduce if not eliminate healthcare inequities – a plan that would be adapted in early 2021. CONTINUED ON FOLLOWING PAGE