Akron Children's Hospital

When Akron Children’s was founded in 1890 it was with these 3 guiding promises:

1. Treat every child as we would our own.
2. Treat others as they would like to be treated.
3. Turn no child away for any reason.

Every day our organization strives to honor these promises by creating a welcoming, respectful and inclusive environment for anyone who comes through our doors. When our patients, families and employees share their unique backgrounds, values, beliefs and voices, we use that knowledge to help us provide culturally competent and equitable care for all. This means we make every effort to deliver the best care possible regardless of a person’s race, sexual orientation, education, socioeconomic status, religion, ethnicity, cultural background, English proficiency or literacy. We believe everyone benefits when we step outside of our own life experiences to intentionally listen, embrace diversity and connect with people who are different from us.

Our focus on equity is centered around the concept that everyone deserves equal treatment and access to care. However, we recognize for certain people or groups there may be barriers that prevent them from seeking or receiving high-quality care. We are working hard to identify and help eliminate these barriers by increasing our community outreach efforts. We do this by locating clinics and health centers in easily accessible geographic regions, expanding our hours, offering interpreter services and hiring more providers. We also partner with community agencies that help us work to decrease health care disparities and improve economic opportunities for everyone.

Our attention to equity also extends to our staff. It’s our goal to build a diverse workforce that reflects our patient population and represents the communities we serve. We are committed to creating an inclusive, diverse team because different points of view strengthen innovation, performance and engagement, and offer better experiences and outcomes for patients and staff. We are also committed to diversity in the suppliers and vendors we do business with—both large and small—with the aim of driving economic inclusion.

We understand that to succeed we must treat each other with kindness, courtesy, dignity and respect. While the process will be ongoing, we have outlined some goals to help us on our journey:

• Champion diversity, inclusion and equity, and demonstrate respect, and dignity to help our organization to become better.
• Practice intentional awareness to ensure employees, patients and families from diverse backgrounds feel safe, represented and supported.
• Use inclusive language and behaviors and learn about others and their differences, including their religious and cultural beliefs.
• Speak up and hold ourselves and others accountable to treat every person with dignity and respect.