From left, Donn Spight, M.D., and Kat Phillips tackle new roles at OHSU which can be impressed by the work of the Vaccine Fairness Committee. (Courtesy)
The Vaccine Fairness Committee (VEC) was an integral a part of Oregon Well being & Science College’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, a brand new OHSU Well being management construction will present the inspiration for guaranteeing that the work of the VEC, together with different well being equity-focused efforts, continues in perpetuity and turns into an intentional a part of how the establishment delivers well being care.
Donn Spight, M.D., has been appointed vp for well being fairness and Kat Phillips, M.H.A., has been appointed director of well being fairness operations. Dr. Spight stepped into his function in November 2022 and Ms. Phillips has been serving in her function since Fall of 2021. These new roles are impressed by the work of the VEC and created with the assist of OHSU government and well being care mission leaders.
The necessity for belief amongst sufferers, community-based organizations, and group and OHSU leaders — a key technique of the VEC — will proceed to be very important to OHSU’s collective progress in making a system for well being fairness.
OHSU’s well being fairness unit lean closely on group engagement: creating a shared imaginative and prescient for well being fairness with enter from group teams; and listening to the group first earlier than constructing options. All through this work, OHSU will use the Oregon Well being Authority definition of well being fairness, which enhances OHSU’s efforts to create a various and inclusive atmosphere, as articulated within the OHSU 2025 Strategic Plan and anti-racism motion plan.
On-the-ground management crew
Each Dr. Spight and Ms. Phillips have been steadfast leaders inside the VEC and have helped construct momentum for weaving well being fairness into all missions of OHSU.
Dr. Spight, who can be professor of surgical procedure within the OHSU Faculty of Medication, will proceed serving veterans in his function as workers normal and laparoscopic surgeon on the Portland VA Medical Heart.
“I used to be deeply impacted by the chance to co-lead the VEC and it has change into a transformational inflection level in my skilled id,” Dr. Spight mentioned. “My intent, together with government leaders, is to ingrain well being fairness into the material of our collective id, as it’s a obligatory element of wonderful, efficient well being care supply.”
Ms. Phillips has been a confirmed chief within the VEC, and has helped design and operationalize complicated scientific fashions in rural and group settings whereas working with competing priorities, restricted sources, and intensely restricted timelines.
Previous to this function, Ms. Phillips was the scientific follow supervisor for the OHSU Backbone Heart and is a former program supervisor for Studying and Organizational Improvement and Worker Engagement at OHSU. Ms. Phillips can be adjunct college within the Division of Administration, and since 2021, has taught the Program Administration in Healthcare course for OHSU’s Grasp of Science in Healthcare Administration.
Well being fairness takes a village
Figuring out that well being fairness is a big enterprise, with quite a few actions already underway throughout the establishment, Dr. Spight and Ms. Phillips will work carefully with stakeholders from the Heart for Variety and Inclusion, OHSU Well being, OHSU Faculty of Medication, the Workplace of Main Care and Inhabitants Well being, the Workplace of Well being Companies and Well being Share of Oregon, the Heart for Proof-Primarily based Coverage, the Workplace of Strategic Outreach, Group Relations and extra to satisfy OHSU’s well being fairness targets. These well being fairness leaders — backed by a cadre of colleagues dedicated to the work — will assist OHSU earn and retain belief and, in the end, make a change.
