The California Endowment, a statewide health foundation, first convened the Medical Leadership Council in 2002. Since that time, the member organizations – including medical specialty societies, county medical societies, ethnic medical associations, health systems, and advocates – have been meeting to educate, build capacity and engage their memberships on issues of racial and ethnic health disparities and the need for language access and cultural proficiency in California’s health care settings.
Name: The California Endowment's Medical Leadership Council on Cultural Proficiency
Charge: Convene the key stakeholders of medical and health organizations in California to educate, build capacity and engage their memberships on issues of racial and ethnic health disparities by:
- educating physicians and other health care providers on health disparities, language access, cultural proficiency and health workforce diversity issues
- developing tools and resources for provider groups to assess and improve their memberships' ability to provide culturally proficient and linguistically appropriate health care services;
- exploring development, improvement and promotion of efficient and easily accessible local interpreter resources and services;
- examining and developing solutions to the problem of limited diversity in the physician and health care workforce as one means of addressing disparities in the provision of health care services;
- examining and addressing other barriers to care that result in racial/ethnic disparities in health care and health status.
- explore development, improvement and promotion of efficient and easily accessible local interpreter services.
Goal One: Eliminate barriers to health care caused by Limited English Proficiency.
Goal Two: Improve cultural proficiency in the medical practice.
Goal Three: Develop policies that establish sustainable financing mechanisms for providers, health systems, hospitals, health plans and qualified health care interpreters engaged in the delivery of language assistance services.
Goal Four: Examine barriers and means to improve entry into the medical and other health professions by members of California's underrepresented minority and underserved populations and undertake efforts to increase diversity representative of California's population in the physician and health care workforce.
Goal Five: Examine barriers to health care and disparities that result from race or ethnicity, including those related to ethnopharmacology, and evaluate and adopt best practices for eliminating such barriers.
MLC Charter: Operating Principles
The Medical Leadership Council on Language Access (MLC) was convened by The California Endowment (TCE) in 2002 as a council of medical and specialty societies, with additional representation from health plans and other organizations interested in language access. The MLC has served as a forum for educating physician leaders about barriers to care resulting from Limited English Proficiency and sharing best practices to reduce such barriers. Council member organizations have developed a statement of policy principles regarding language access to serve as guidance for their respective organizations' public policy and educational activities. Beginning in 2005, the MLC will expand its charge to include other issues of racial and ethnic health disparities related to cultural proficiency and health workforce diversity.
- MLC is funded by TCE and convened by the California Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP). Meetings are co-chaired by TCE President and CEO Robert Ross, MD and CAFP Past President Leonard Fromer. TCE and the CAFP meetings jointly schedule meetings and establish agendas for the MLC meetings.
- The MLC itself does not make decisions or adopt positions. Discussion and dialogue is encouraged during meetings but there are no formal Rules of Order.
- Work groups comprised of volunteers have been utilized for development of such documents as the Public Policy Principles for Language Access and Interpreter Services in California, which are then circulated among the MLC's member organizations for review and adoption. Each member organization may adopt such principles or not, as it sees fit and according to their respective internal process for adopting policy positions.
- The MLC is based on concepts of collaboration and partnership, and all participants are encouraged and provided incentives to work in concert; sharing best practices and programs and resources. Each member organization is expected to participate consistently and contribute its own experiences and expertise to the MLC. In turn, TCE, through CAFP, provides stipends for participation. TCE also has made direct grants to member organizations for research, educational and implementation projects related to the MLC charge and priority issues.
