Historically, there has not been a significant institutional drive to promote diverse executive leadership even though ethnic and racial minorities have experienced worse clinical outcomes across a broad spectrum of diseases, even when adjusted for income. We have known for some time that these health care disparities exist and cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars annually. Derek Robinson, MD, FACEP, is vice president of enterprise quality and accreditation for the Health Care Service Corporation and a past attendee of the reception. His role is to “ensure that his members receive the best care and provide optimal outcomes.” He believes that there were few financial incentives for cash-strapped hospital systems and “hesitancy” for physician groups to move toward greater diversity in their executive ranks. The traditional fee-for-service model placed very little value on clinical outcomes or integrated delivery models for populations, and so the status quo persisted.

However, with the advent of population health and value-based reimbursement, hospital systems and physician groups are starting to take clinical outcomes much more seriously because they increasingly affect the hospital’s bottom line. It clearly has been illustrated that provider diversity improves the quality of care and outcomes of both micro and macro populations. In his recently published textbook, Diversity and Inclusion in Quality Patient Care, Marcus Martin, MD, vice president and chief officer of diversity at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, discusses how quality outcomes are affected by diversity of providers and leadership in emergency medicine. Having executive leadership that understands and directs the clinical operations that influence these disparities is a winning value proposition for hospital systems and patients. This reception hopes to address these issues.

Accordingly, the Diversity Executive Reception at ACEP underscores the need to facilitate and promote executive diversity in emergency medicine. It remains open to executive leaders of all backgrounds. If you feel that you or any member of your organization would benefit from attendance, email Savoy Brummer, MD, at savoybrummer@cep.com for more information. See you at ACEP16 in Las Vegas!

Dr. Brummer is vice president and member of the board of directors for CEP America in St. Louis.