Developing cultural competence in health care settings. National Center for Cultural Competence

Increasing cultural and linguistic competence in health care settings is important for several reasons, including: responding to current and projected demographic changes in the United States; eliminating long-standing disparities in the health status of people of diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds; improving quality of both services provided and health outcomes; meeting legislative, regulatory, and accreditation mandates; gaining a competitive edge in the market place; and decreasing the likelihood of liability/malpractice claims. Changes in policies, structures, practices, and procedures are often needed to bring about improvements in this arena. To support the process of change, The National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) was funded to increase the capacity of health care and mental health systems, institutions, programs, and providers to design, implement, and evaluate service delivery systems for cultural and linguistic competence. Several checklists developed by the NCCC are presented here for use by individual practitioners, programs, and institutions in assessing aspects of cultural competence.