Equity and Perioperative Care

Key points

• Closing gaps in care outcomes by race, ethnicity, and other measures of health inequity must be an integral part of quality improvement.

• Health disparities exist in every aspect of perioperative care and medicine.

• Addressing health equity involves understanding the roles race and racism play in health care.

• Racism must be understood on an individual level and a system level.

• There are many actions that perioperative care professionals can take to address equity in care.