Strategic implications of culturally competent care

Providing culturally competent care has implications for health care managers and their organizations that go beyond a simple clinical perspective. The article defines culturally competent care and suggests what the specific strategic implications of delivering such care are. The author suggests the definition of culturally competent care for a health care manager as "the ability of any health care provider of any cultural background in one's organization to effectively treat any patient of any cultural background." Four basic steps are suggested for an organization wishing to develop a program of delivering culturally competent care to include situation analysis, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategic control.