Road Map Progress

Mount Sinai is on the path to becoming an anti-racist health care and learning institution that directly addresses racism’s impact on our entire community. Guided by the Road Map’s 11 strategies, we are working every day to dismantle structural racism. Learn more about the Mount Sinai staff members leading implementation of the 11 Road Map strategies.

• Aligning Services and Increasing Access to Care
  • Many ambulatory practices, including cancer and cardiac services and the transplant program are unified, to ensure equal treatment for all patients regardless of insurance status — and more are on that pathway.
  • The Department of Urology launched the brand-new Robert F. Smith prostate cancer screening unit in underserved communities. Black men are 70 perfect more likely to develop high-risk prostate cancer and are more than twice as likely to die of it than white men — this program will help address these inequities.
• Hiring & Retention
  • Mount Sinai has partnered with recruitment firms that are closely aligned with our anti-racism work and is restructuring and diversifying search committees for leadership positions.
  • The Strategy number eight team has engaged a team of diverse HR professionals to review all Mount Sinai job descriptions to ensure they include specific, thoughtful, and deliberate anti-racist language.
  • Vice Presidents from HR and Labor Relations, in collaboration with Pamela Abner, Vice President and Chief Diversity Operations Officer for Mount Sinai Hospital Groups, are reviewing system HR policies through a lens of equity to uphold anti-racist behaviors and practices.
• Educational and Professional Development Programming
  • The Road Map team and the Mentoring Steering Committee have catalogued all mentorship programs at Mount Sinai to see how they can better complement each other and maintain a strong foundation in equity.
  • The Black Executive Acceleration Program (BEAP) was founded to support Black staff at the director and senior director level who are interested in advancing their careers.
  • The Chats for Change program, which provides a safe space for Health System staff members to learn and talk about race, has been expanded and broadened.
  • The Talent Development and Learning Division and the Office for Diversity and Inclusion collaborated on a two-part educational series, “Creating a Brave Space for Conversations about Race.” Leaders and managers with direct reports may register for this course on PEAK.
     
• Enhanced Policies and Resources
  • Mount Sinai instituted a new policy to support employees who experience racist behavior from patients, with a focus on stopping the harmful behavior and supporting our colleagues.
  • The Institute for Health Equity Research at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was established to facilitate collaboration between scientists with community, clinical, policy, and industry stakeholders. Together, they’re working to eliminate underlying causes of health disparities — especially in the wake of the pandemic. Read their first annual report.
  • Three new Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are currently in formation: the Interfaith ERG, Nurses Against Racism, and Supply Chain. Learn more about these new ERGs and existing groups.
  • The Office of Gender Equity in Science and Medicine and the Office for Diversity and Inclusion’s Patricia S. Levinson Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs partnered to develop system-wide educational programming on microaggressions.
  • The Office for Diversity and Inclusion  and the Road Map team have created resources to aid members of the Mount Sinai community in their anti-racist education: the Road Map Conversations Toolkit, the United in Solidarity Resource Guide, and the weekly Road Map Bulletin.

There is, of course, more work to do. If you want to be part of creating this change at our health system, get involved by joining an Employee Resource Group (ERG) or Diversity Council or sharing your ideas with us at RoadMap@mountsinai.org.