Health Equity

At UNC Health, we aspire to eliminate health disparities and achieve health equity in our patients and community. In order to achieve health equity, we must make fundamental changes across multiple systems and at multiple levels.

Some of our health equity efforts include:

  • UNC Mobile Health Unit – provides COVID-19 testing in under-served areas in partnership with churches, community centers, schools, etc.
  • Rockingham Primary Care Initiative – joint effort to meet the healthcare workforce needs in Rockingham County
  • FIT (Formerly Incarcerated Transitions) Program – connects people that have been in prison and have chronic disease, mental illness, and/or substance use disorder with the right healthcare services and other resources.
  • Carolina Health Net (Piedmont Health Services and UNC Family Medicine ) – provides health care for uninsured individuals in Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Lee and Orange counties
  • Community Engaged Research Projects (Heart Matters, MapsCorp, Project Grace) – longstanding (15-year) research partnership between UNC School of Medicine researchers and community organizations in Nash and Edgecombe counties to reduce heart disease risk among African-Americans
  • NC TraCS Community and Stakeholder Engagement – helps engagement between academic, clinical and community partners across the state to ensure that: stakeholder input informs research; research addresses the needs of the communities it serves; and underrepresented populations are represented in the research process
  • UNC Wayne Health CoNEXTion program – provides free home visits to give high-risk patients the tools they need to manage their health following a hospital visit.
  • #123ForEquity – a national campaign to eliminate healthcare disparities. Participating hospital systems pledge to work to reduce disparities that exist for racially, ethnically and culturally diverse individual
  • An Analysts Guide to Advancing Equity in Data Visualization – developed the DEI and Health Analytics Workgroup to support data analysts in the creation of data visualization tools to embed equity in new and existing data displays

Learn more about how we are advancing health equity:

There is more work to be done to achieve health equity, and we are committed to doing the work!

We want to hear from you.

We invite you to share your ideas and to hold us accountable. If you have questions or feedback, please let us know by filling out this form.

Health Equity Feedback Form

Awards & Recognition

Healthcare Equality Index Emblems from Human Rights Commission

  • UNC Rex Hospital was recognized as an Equality Leader and UNC Hospitals as a Top Performer in the Healthcare Equality Index measuring equity and inclusion of LGBTQ patients, visitors and employees. Chatham Hospital earned a score of 90 out of 100 and was recognized as a 2022 HEI participant.

  • In 2020, we were among the recipients of the Latino Diamante Award, honoring individuals or organizations making significant contributions to the Hispanic/Latino community.
  • Also in 2020, Chatham Hospital received the Carolyn Boone Lewis Equity of Care Award for its efforts including employee training in communication, cultural competency and unconscious bias, as well as mentoring programs in partnership with community leaders with the aim of securing future applicants to provide interpreter services.