Fair healthcare economies

Everyone should have equal access to resources, job opportunities, and markets. This means making sure that people from historically underrecognized groups are actively involved in decisions, activities, and sharing the benefits of these opportunities.

Advice from authors on searching for information:

Focus on academic and peer-reviewed journals that examine the financial impacts of well-resourced healthcare systems on workers and communities. Look for case studies from healthcare organizations that have successfully implemented policies promoting fairness in opportunities, compensation, and resource distribution. Additionally, review reports and guidelines from organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to understand best practices in supporting insufficiently catered to populations and improving care for all patients. Engaging with local and global advocacy groups can also provide practical insights and evidence-based strategies for achieving equitable healthcare.

Organizations, repositories, websites, and other sources where you can find more information:

• Fair Pay in Healthcare Shift Work: Insights and Strategies. A health care system resource to ensure competitive compensation in health care shift work to achieve fair pay for workers.
• Health Inequality Data Repository. Explore disaggregated data on a diverse range of topics, including economic status.
• Help us ensure access to fair and competitive healthcare markets for you and your family. Provides information and resources about the importance of fair and competitive health care markets for health care workers, including ensuring fair wages, improving working conditions, and promoting job opportunities.
• The PHI National website is dedicated to promoting quality jobs for direct care workers and providing resources, advocacy, and support to improve the long-term care sector. It aims to strengthen the direct care workforce and ensure that caregiving jobs are well-supported and valued. The 5 Pillars of Direct Care Job Quality page outlines five key pillars that are essential to improving job quality for direct care workers. These pillars are quality training, fair compensation, quality supervision and support, respect and recognition, and opportunities for advancement. The Fair Compensation is Essential to the Direct Care Job page emphasizes that fair compensation is crucial for direct care workers, highlighting that adequate wages and benefits are fundamental to attracting and retaining skilled caregivers. It also advocates for better pay structures and policies to ensure the sustainability and quality of direct care jobs.
• From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Achieving Health Equity. Includes information, resources, and actions for promoting health equity.

Challenges you may encounter while searching for information:

Lack of unified terminology across sectors like health equity, labor policy, and economic development. Relevant data is often fragmented and buried under broader topics such as workforce diversity, hospital community benefit, or social determinants of health. Additionally, few standardized metrics exist to evaluate how healthcare systems equitably support workers and underserved communities.

Articles, books, and other publications in translational science using the indicator:

• Jahun I, Udod S, Roskoshnyi I, Kurawa MS, Miko Mohammed AM. Building equitable healthcare institutions in low- and middle income countries: Lessons from wealthy nations. British Journal of Healthcare and Medical Research. 2024;11(3):183-196. doi:10.14738/bjhmr.113.2024.
• Fong BYF. Equitable healthcare systems. Med Law. 2021; 40(4):547-568.
• Rudiger A. Human rights and the political economy of Universal Health Care. Health Hum Rights. 2016;18(2):67-78.
• Gusoff GM, Zuckerman D, Pham BH, et al. Moving upstream: Healthcare partnerships addressing social determinants of health through community wealth building. BMC Public Health. 2023;23,1824. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16761-x.