CASE B: Steps Toward Cultural Competence

Three students are about to graduate from TempleDental School in a few months, and they are about to open their ownpractice upon graduation.  They hire your consulting companyto help them design a culturally competent practice.  Youreceive the following email from one of the students:

Dear __________,

I understand that you provide consultation servicesfor healthcare organizations who want to be more culturallycompetent.  My friends and I are joining together to start ourown dental practice, and we want to make sure that we are gettingoff on the right foot.  We went to school at Temple UniversityDental School, which exists in North Philadelphia.  We want tostay connected to the local community, so we are opening ourpractice nearby. 

Some of our concerns are:

·         Meeting theneeds of a low income community while still staying afloatfinancially as a business

·         Diversity ofour own staff (we are three white men)

·         Designingpolicies that are culturally competent

·         Uncoveringour unconscious biases

·         How toincorporate our passion for cultural competency into our missionstatement

Can you help us? 

Sincerely,

Brian Jones

For this case study, answer the followingquestions:

1. Design a concise email response to this inquiry. I want to see that you can write a professional email. There is nothing specific you need to include in terms ofcontent.  Please just show me your best professional conductin a brief response.  Use this email to set up ameeting. 

2. Now imagine your email was so well-written thatBrian agrees to meet with you to hear your ideas.  Uponmeeting Brian Jones and his 2 partners, what information would youlike to know in order to design a plan of action?  List 2questions to ask these gentlemen BEFORE you can begin working withthem.

3. Provide a sample statement that could be added tothe organization’s mission statement.

4. How would you address the diversity of theemployees at this healthcare organization?  In other words,what would you do to incorporate more diversity on the team?

5. What policies do they need to consider in theirworkplace management? Name at least 2 specific policies and explainhow those policies address the concerns presented in Brian’semail.  Think about policies intended for the employees, notnecessarily the patients.