Nongovernment Philanthropic Spending on Public Health in the United States.

The objective of this study was to estimate the dollar amount of nongovernment philanthropic spending on public health activities in the United States. Health expenditure data were derived from the US National Health Expenditures Accounts and the US Census Bureau. Results reveal that spending on public health is not disaggregated from health spending in general.

Making quality improvement programs more effective.

Purpose: In the past 25 years, and as recent as 2011, all external evaluations of the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program have found its impact to be small or difficult to discern. The QIO program costs about $200 million on average to administer each year to improve quality of healthcare for people of 65 years or older. The program was created to address questionable quality of care.

Culturally and linguistically appropriate health care for racial or ethnic minorities: analysis of the US Office of Minority Health's recommended standards.

As the demographic make-up of the United States becomes more culturally diverse, there is more emphasis on providing culturally and linguistically appropriate health care to racial or ethnic minorities. This paper examines the recommended standards for culturally and linguistically competent health care delivery released by the Office of Minority Health of the US Department of Health and Human Services in December 2000. This paper presents a discussion of the impact of these standards on health care organizations in terms of structural requirements, process requirements and outcome expectations.

Workforce diversity and cultural competence in healthcare.

This paper presents a discussion of workforce diversity in healthcare and its attendant requisite of cultural competency. The first section of the paper argues that self-assessments and diversity training are integral to workforce diversity management. This paper maintains that diversity training should be a part of overall strategic goals, and that the development of management goals should be based on self-assessments.