The Impact of Bias on Health Equity and the Human Experience

This paper identifies and discusses how bias in healthcare settings is displayed and proliferated and acknowledges its serious and lasting consequences on patient outcomes and overall experience. In this paper, healthcare leaders share what they have learned about addressing bias and the immediate need to begin rebuilding trust with those they serve. Patients and families share their lived experiences of being exposed to bias and how it has impacted their overall approach to healthcare and what needs to change in the future. The paper offers tangible ways in which organizations, leaders and the community-at-large, can create a path to health equity through intentional action to address bias.