Before she left St. Louis and Barnes–Jewish Hospital, Brenda Battle – then director of the Center for Diversity and Cultural Competence at BJH – was fighting for inclusion to be represented at the table where decisions about the business of health care take place.
That position of influence and prominence for diversity was what attracted Katrina Farmer to the newly created position of vice president of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity for BJH and St. Louis Children’s hospitals.
“Unfortunately, diversity gets pigeon-holed as ‘everybody get along, feel good,’ and I’m not saying there isn’t room for people to connect in a different way, but at the end of the day, this is a business of taking care of patients and providing them with the care they need and making sure that it’s equitable care,” Farmer said.
“And, are the medical outcomes the same and are the experiences the same? And if it needs to be different because there is a difference in culture, is it done in a way that is respectful and mindful of those cultures so that everyone is comfortable with that care process?”
Farmer came to St. Louis from Columbus, Ohio, where she served as system director of Diversity, Succession Planning & Career Development and director of Diversity & Inclusion for Mount Carmel Health System, the second largest in Central Ohio.
“In central Ohio we’ve had a focus on diversity and inclusion in healthcare, but I do not believe the work has always been positioned for success,” Farmer said. “This work is unlike any other priority in the business. Without top-level support, commitment and resources, it’s very difficult for the work to achieve the goals and objectives that have been established or to sustain itself – even when there isn’t someone leading it on a day to day basis.”
Farmer said the goal for persons working in diversity should be to work oneself out of a job by integrating diversity, inclusion and cultural competency into the fiber of an organization so that it is inherent in what everyone does. It’s automatic, intuitive.
“And what impressed me about Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children’s Hospital is what’s already in place as far as the groundwork and the commitment that I could see upon having conversations with leaders,” she said, “and doing some research to look to see what types of things have been done in the past that would indicate there is a level of commitment.”
She said a center such as Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s Center for Cultural Competence is unheard of in central Ohio, where most efforts around diversity and inclusion have taken the form of a specific class, a series of brown-bag luncheons or workshops.
She also was attracted to St. Louis by the hospitals’ relationship with Washington University School of Medicine – “the connection with Washington University and the commitment from those physicians for the work that they are doing to look at disparities and to help people see it in a way that makes sense for health care.”
Enhancing efforts already in place
Farmer officially began her duties on July 15, but she jumped in early and came in with an entry plan for diversifying the workforce, focusing on the workplace culture and bolstering community partnerships.
“The goal would be to enhance the efforts that are already in place and to continue to build that pipeline internally and externally and to really look at the physician partners and the team members and to make sure they are reflective of the community that’s being served,” Farmer said.
She has experienced some success in this regard at Mount Carmel Health System.
“We, as a Catholic health care system, created a very inclusive environment that allowed our associates to be included in the diversity work from the standpoint of being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender,” Farmer said. “We established associate resource groups that were tied directly to focusing directly on the business of care.”
Other areas of focus for her at Mount Carmel included professional development and ensuring success in reducing health disparities surrounding infant mortality.
Prior to Mount Carmel, Farmer worked at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, developing diversity training and strengthening cultural awareness.
Farmer earned her bachelor’s degree in human resources and master’s degree in business administration at Franklin University. She became interested in the field during her graduate school years.
“It was part of one of the organizational culture classes I was taking as I was working toward my MBA,” she said. “And it landed around the space of diversity and inclusion and how diversity can have such a profound impact on the business in either a positive or a negative way.”
Farmer is a past president of the Society for Human Resources Management and served as its diversity manager. She has also been involved in the Institute for Diversity in Health Management through her previous institution and with the American Leadership Council, a group of diversity professionals in health care that shares best practices.
She volunteered for the United Way, American Red Cross and Franklin University. Farmer is a member Links, Inc., The Girl Friends, Inc. and Jack and Jill, Inc. She and her husband, James Farmer are parents of two daughters, 14-year-old Nadia and 11-year-old Alea.
But when it comes to diversity, she is all business.
“If you don’t connect your work to the business, you’re not going to be around,” Farmer said. “The work must be connected to the business of health care in a meaningful way and it’s not just a flavor of the month ‘kumbaya’ type of initiative.”
