HOMERuN Collaborative: Health Equity, Antiracism, and Social Justice Group Updates
The Hospital Medicine Reengineering Network (HOMERuN) is a rapidly growing collaborative made up of more than 50 Hospital Medicine groups from academic and non-academic hospitals across the United States.
On the December 13, 2024 HOMERuN Collaborative Session, the Health Equity, Antiraciscm, and Social Justice (HEARS) Work Group presented updates on their current projects. This Work Group plays a pivotal role in ensuring HOMERuN efforts address HEARS principles, sharing knowledge, and evolving HEARS practices within the hospitalist community.
Membership and Logistics
The group continues to grow with representation from across the country. In 2024, we held monthly meetings which have become a valued forum for community building and sharing ideas.
Projects and Approach
The HEARS group is both leading projects and offering its expertise to view emerging projects through the lens of HEARS principles.
Health equity in hospital medicine: based on focus groups conducted within the HOMERuN group, we presented a poster at the annual SHM Converge meeting in 2024. Dr. Lisa Le is leading the completion of the manuscript in which we explore how hospital medicine is defining and incorporating health equity measures.
Racial bias in pulse oximetry: Dr. David Sterken continues to lead the effort to disseminate emerging data regarding the potential of bias in pulse oximetry and opportunities to advocate. Individual members have taken these ideas further at their own institutions.
Mitigating violence in health care settings: The group provided input to the Society of Hospital Medicine's official guidance on how to mitigate violence in hospital settings, an issue that may be fraught with bias and ethical conflicts.
Caring for patients with sickle cell disease: A subgroup led by Dr. Ashley Jenkins is focused on improving the ways we care for patients with sickle cell disease.
Future Directions
If you have had any interest in joining the HEARS group, please join us Tuesday 1/28 3pm ET at our monthly standing meeting. We will be:
Discussing opportunities for leadership growth in our HEARS group
Exploring our plans for 2025, including new projects. These may include:
Understanding the current state of how hospitals address caring for patients who leave before being medically ready
Establishing quality measures for inpatient sickle cell care
How to ensure HOMERuN integrates HEARS principles into ALL it does
Setting tentative timelines for scholarly project development
Deciding if the 4th Tuesday is still the "better" time for meeting
HOMERuN at SHM Converge 2025
Congratulations to all our HOMERuN Collaborative and Research Team members who have had abstracts accepted at SHM Converge 2025!
More information about what the HOMERuN Work Groups are working on is available on our Collaborative Work Groups Page.
Our next meeting will be on February 14, 2025.
Image Attributions: Vector images from vecteezy.com