Reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care.

This report reviews key principles of quality (as it relates to the overall quality of the health care system and individual approaches to quality improvement); reviews evidence of the existence and root causes of racial and ethnic health disparities and recommendations to address them; and discusses strategies by which the quality and cultural competence movements could be linked. In particular, it focuses on the Institute of Medicine’s six principles for designing a highquality health care system to identify areas where aspects of cultural competence would be central to achieving high quality. It then presents a framework outlining both hypothetical and proven strategies for delivering high-quality, culturally competent care. Support for this research was provided by The Commonwealth Fund. The views presented here are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Commonwealth Fund or its directors, officers, or staff. This report and other Fund publications are available online at www.cmwf.org. To learn more about new publications when they become available, visit the Fund’s Web site and register to receive e-mail alerts. Commonwealth Fund pub. no. 961.