CHARLOTTE, N.C.– This afternoon, Novant Health hosted the CEO Action Check Your Blind Spots bus tour to help community members explore their unconscious biases. Novant Health invited team members, Atrium Health employees and Central Piedmont Community College students to walk through the interactive and immersive elements on the bus, which are designed to help participants better understand and recognize unconscious biases or blind spots that can narrow vision and influence our behaviors.
"At Novant Health, diversity and inclusion are more than just words. They’re
core values,” said Carl Armato, president and CEO, Novant Health. “We recognize
that every person is different, each shaped by unique life experiences. When we
acknowledge and understand those differences, it enables us to better
understand one another.”
Armato, who is a member of CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion and worked to bring this initiative to Charlotte, further believes that Novant Health “can only fulfill our mission to improve the health of communities, one person at a time, by engaging the strengths and talents of each of our 28,000 team members.”
Forbes recently ranked Novant Health No. 38 on its annual ranking of the country’s top employers for diversity. Out of 500 employers nationwide, Novant Health was the top-ranking company in North Carolina. This commitment to diversity can be seen amongst Novant Health’s executive team, of which five of the nine members are women, and nearly half represent non-white ethnicities.
Novant Health is the first stop on the 100 city bus tour, which is bringing the unique virtual reality and gaming technology experiences, including:
- Wake Up Call. A 100 percent audio experience, through a wall of ringing phones, participants pick up a receiver and overhear conversations between landlords, tenants and potential renters that reveal unintended bias.
- Look Through a Different Lens. Via gamification and digital viewfinder, participants watch an interaction between co-workers setting up a work-related event and then, identify moments when unconscious biases are demonstrated.
- Face Yourself, Face Reality. In front of a mirror, participants watch as their reflection fades away to reveal a different person staring back at them. Through this touchscreen experience, each new reflection shares a series of biases they've experienced.
Novant Health is committed and engaged in a robust process of embedding diversity and inclusion throughout its culture for patients, team members, suppliers and the communities it serves. In 2018, the Novant Health Cultural Ambassadors Program was launched to ensure that care is individualized and understood by patients whose primary language is not English. The goal is to improve health outcomes for diverse patient populations in a welcoming and inclusive environment.
“To embed a culture of diversity and inclusion requires us all to take a look at ourselves, our mindsets and behaviors,” said Tanya Blackmon, executive vice president and chief diversity, inclusion and equity officer, Novant Health. “It requires us to be open to listen and to understand each other - to share our experiences and our stories. This is not about a program – rather, it’s an ongoing commitment to our patients, team members and community.”
In 2018, 14 Novant Health acute care facilities were named a LGBTQ Healthcare Equality Leader by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, marking the second year in a row the organization received systemwide recognition. Novant Health is one of only eight health care systems nationwide that had 10 or more facilities receive the recognition.
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