Question

CASE B: Steps Toward Cultural Competence

Three students are about to graduate from Temple Dental School in a few months, and they are about to open their own practice upon graduation.  They hire your consulting company to help them design a culturally competent practice.  You receive the following email from one of the students:

Dear __________,

I understand that you provide consultation services for healthcare organizations who want to be more culturally competent.  My friends and I are joining together to start our own dental practice, and we want to make sure that we are getting off on the right foot.  We went to school at Temple University Dental School, which exists in North Philadelphia.  We want to stay connected to the local community, so we are opening our practice nearby. 

Some of our concerns are:

·         Meeting the needs of a low income community while still staying afloat financially as a business

·         Diversity of our own staff (we are three white men)

·         Designing policies that are culturally competent

·         Uncovering our unconscious biases

·         How to incorporate our passion for cultural competency into our mission statement

Can you help us? 

Sincerely,

Brian Jones

For this case study, answer the following questions:

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 of content.  Please just show me your best professional conduct in a brief response.  Use this email to set up a meeting. 

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

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

4. How would you address the diversity of the employees 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 their workplace management? Name at least 2 specific policies and explain how those policies address the concerns presented in Brian’s email.  Think about policies intended for the employees, not necessarily the patients.

Answer 1

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 of content. Please just show me your best professional conduct in a brief response. Use this email to set up a meeting.

Dear Brian,

Good morning. Greetings from 'ABC consulting company'

It is indeed enriching to know that there are young energetic doctors with a view towards cultural competency. We appreciate your decision to approach us for your project.

Staying close to the local community will definitely help you in developing your practice. It will help in gaining the trust of the local community and they will definitely support you and your efforts. We as a company, have helped more than 500 clients flourish in their ventures and are happy to help you too. Let us meet up tomorrow (21 Apr 2018) at '*venue' by '*time' to discuss further about the venture.

Looking forward to meeting you in person.

Thank you.

Warm Regards,

XYZ,

ABC consulting company

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

Things to know about them:

1. Nature and extend to which they want to get involved with the local people.
2. Their main goal in setting up dental clinics with a focus towards cultural competency, and whether there is any hidden agenda behind the initiative.
3. The financial source of the project.
4. A market research on the existing dental practitioners and doctors in the area that they are planning to set up the clinic.
5. Whether the patients would trust a newly set up clinic or the old ones.
6. The likeability and trust factor that the patients would have towards a new clinic setup by college passouts.

Questions to ask before the work begins:

1. Could you explain the nature of involvement you expect from the local community?
2. Could you give us a background of the financial stability of the project?

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

'The first proactive dental clinic with a comitment towards community. We provide the best in class facility to make you happy. '

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

To address to diversity of the employees at the healthcare organization, it is best to employ workers from the locality where they intend to set up the healthcare clinic.

• To incorporate more diversity on the team, different functional areas should have employees that are from different cultural background, especially the local community. This will help in ensuring cultural diversity within the organisation and will be one step closer to the dream of cultural competency.
• There should be idea sharing among the different workers and doctors. This encourages the workers/emplyees to share more and become a part of the organization. It would also help the founders to move towards cultural competency by gaining the trust people from differenct cultures.