Q&A: Prioritizing health equity with Emory Healthcare’s Chief Transformation Officer

Q&A: Prioritizing health equity with Emory Healthcare’s Chief Transformation Office 
CDW Healthcare - Patient-Centered Care; by Teta Alim; 11/19/24 
Most healthcare organizations regularly prioritize goals to improve the patient experience and increase clinician satisfaction, aligning with the Quintuple Aim. Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare created the role of chief transformation officer to focus on these areas, and in July 2023, Dr. Amaka Eneanya became the first to fill the role. ... What would you say were the top three lessons you learned during the first year in your new role? ENEANYA: It's been a great year. For lesson one, as someone coming from a different part of the U.S., ingraining yourself and getting to know the people and the culture of the organization that you’re in, that’s important to determine the change readiness of an organization. ... The second lesson is that change is exciting. There's a lot of trepidation with change, and part of being effective with change management and transformation is really garnering excitement. ... The third lesson that continues to be pervasive in my career is that health equity is poorly understood. ... You have to start with the basic foundation and concepts of health equity before you can make initiatives, otherwise people won't understand what you're doing, and they might have a visceral response to what you're doing because of the misinformation around health equity.