Asian BRG

The Asian BRG led conversations and created resources with the goal of promoting team member well- being and alleviating fears among members of the Asian community. We partnered with our Employee Occupational Health team on a survey to assess impact on Asian team members. Through this survey, we learned that despite fear of racial hate during the pandemic, Asian team members felt safe at work. We created and shared resources on the topics of self-care, response to coronavirus racism, history and heritage of Wuhan, and ethnicities within the Asian continent. These articles helped develop cultural humility and competency amongst team members. The BRG also helped create COVID-19 educational guides in different Asian languages: Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Nepali, Russian, and Vietnamese. We partnered with a local organization on a webinar about the COVID-19 impact on Asian community. The webinar had 50 attendees (146 views of recording) where 100% of attendees found the webinar to be useful. All this work resulted in fostering an inclusive environment for our team members where they could share about their fears and learn how to care for Asian patients. We were also able to develop allyship with organizations to address health care needs of Asian communities. We understand that our business is the care of all people, starting with our team members. By raising awareness about the impact of the pandemic on the Asian community, we created a safe place to have dialogue about feelings and experiences that our team members had about the virus-related hate

incidents. We ensured team members that their personal safety, needs and well-being are a priority to our organization. Our survey results to assess impact of the pandemic on Asian team members showed that even though team members feared aggression in society at large, 85% of respondents said they felt safe and welcomed. We also increased cultural competency and awareness about different Asian cultures, which has equipped our clinical teams with tools to better understand their patients. As a result, team members felt more confident caring for patients from different backgrounds and cultures. By recognizing and celebrating different Asian cultural heritages with our team members, we contributed to creating a diverse and inclusive culture. We were able to create an environment that welcomed dialogue and developed trust amongst our Asian team members. By educating our team members about Asian culture, we were able to improve their cultural competency. This helped them to better understand their patients and improve health outcomes for them. We also helped in closing the gaps in healthcare disparities among Asian patients, which has helped us become a provider of choice amongst Asians in North Carolina. In 2020, we developed strategic partnerships with different Asian community leaders. One of the initial outcomes from these partnerships was that some of these leaders partnered with our BRG and generously donated meals and masks to help healthcare providers at the beginning of the pandemic. Our initiatives have helped raise awareness within our organization and garner support of our leaders to

address health disparities in Asian communities. Asian BRG is the bridge between our organization and Asian community leaders. Asian community leaders have had the opportunity to participate as panelists in webinars to educate our team members about cultural barriers affecting the health of Asian patients and advocate for their unique needs. Through our BRG, external stakeholders have been able to develop a strategic partnership with our organization to improve the health of Asian communities, resulting in a temporary vaccine site for the Asian community at the Hindu Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.