Health Equity

Our Commitment to Health Equity

At Children’s National, health equity is rooted in our mission. It’s about creating a better future for children and their families. To do that we must consider the environment we create inside our hospital and system, and the impact of external factors.

Inside Children’s National, we are working to create a culture that leverages our differences to achieve excellence. We promote and practice compassion, commitment and connection in order to create strong partnerships with the community, our staff members, our patients and their families.

Children's National was also recognized by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, which honored our Pediatric Residency Program with the 2022 Barbara Ross-Lee, DO Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award. The award recognizes programs working to diversity the underrepresented physician workforce and create inclusive workplaces.

Newsweek also named Children’s National Hospital one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity 2024, the second such distinction in the two years the list has existed. The recognition is based on a “thorough examination of publicly available data, interviews with HR professionals, and an anonymous online survey conducted among a diverse group of employees at companies in the U.S.” Our organization received a total of 4.5 stars out of 5.

Fostering Healthy Living in the Community

We also seek to effect change that will improve health for children in our community and beyond. To do that, we work to ensure all people have access to services and opportunities that enable healthy living. Our team also increases awareness and understanding through research, seeking to effect change through health programs that help children in our community who come to us from many different lived experiences. These are just some of the many ways we work in and with the community to create a better future for children and their families:

• Research and education. In the United States, there is a growing body of evidence showing disparities in healthcare treatment – and patient outcomes – based on race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Through research, community partnerships and advocacy, we are combating these serious public health concerns.
• Community Benefit Program. Children’s National helps build communities where every child can grow up stronger. Our Community Benefit Program provides treatment, or promotes health and healing, as a response to identified community needs.
• School Health Collaborative. We understand that children spend much of their time in school; therefore we envision a school-friendly healthcare system designed to ensure all children reach optimal health and achieve their full academic potential. For more than two decades, our School Health Collaborative has served the school system by providing more than two dozen school-based programs (including oral health, mental health, reproductive health and school nursing) and administering 20 school-based health centers in three public school jurisdictions.
• Mentorship and career opportunities. Through a variety of community partnerships and programs, we introduce adolescents, teenagers and medical students to a future in medicine. We also provide them with access to biomedical research opportunities.