Cook Ross, Inc. Launches CultureVision, an Online Cultural Competency Training Solution for Healthcare Providers.

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Cook Ross, one of the country's leading diversity training and consulting companies, has launched CultureVision(TM), an online cultural competency training tool for healthcare providers.

"Cultural competency has become a critical focus in healthcare," said Howard Ross, president of Cook Ross, Inc. "The changing demographics in our society have created increasing challenges in understanding how culture, race, religion and ethnicity impact patient care and treatment protocols. CultureVision brings cultural competency right to the healthcare provider."

Using Internet-based technology, CultureVision is on-the spot access for doctors, nurses and other practitioners to obtain the information they need to ask the right questions, treat patients in a culturally appropriate manner, and look for culturally specific diagnostic support for cultural groups. Within five minutes and with a few mouse clicks, providers can get the information they need to improve their ability to care for patients.

"CultureVision takes volumes of research and information and puts it at the fingertips of the people who need it the most and can do the most good with it," Ross said.

Immigrants and the children of immigrants were responsible for 70 percent of the total U.S. population growth in the 1990s, according to a recent Washington Post article. "The blending of cultural identities and living in an age of complex cultural realities leads healthcare providers to the necessity of transcultural care," the article noted.

That is the case at Bon Secours Health System, a Catholic health care ministry headquartered in Marriottsville, Md., which owns, manages, or joint ventures 20 acute-care hospitals, one psychiatric hospital, eight nursing care facilities, eight assisted living facilities, and several home care and hospice programs located in 12 communities in nine states, primarily on the East Coast.

Bon Secours was a major supporter of Cook Ross in the development of CultureVision, and has been working with the company for the past eight years on cultural competency training and development.

"We're in an environment that is clearly multicultural and our patients come from a variety of different backgrounds," said Everard Rutledge, Ph.D., vice president of community health for Bon Secours Health System. "We needed a tool that would enhance communication in the care setting, whether it be a hospital or long-term care facility."

Dr. Rutledge said CultureVision has helped Bon Secours caregivers become more culturally sensitive to the healthcare needs of different populations. It has helped them with issues ranging from diet to death and dying.

"Understanding cultural competency is a necessary skill if we're going to be quality providers of healthcare," he said, adding that Bon Secours requires its executive staff to undergo Cook Ross' cultural competency training and is beginning to train nurses and other staff members who come in contact with patients. "CultureVision is an important instrument in the toolbox, along with interpreters and cultural competency training and development."

About Cook Ross

Cook Ross is one of the country's leading organizational change and diversity consultancies, based in Silver Spring, Md. For nearly 20 years, the company has provided cultural competency solutions through its training, consulting products and services. Cook Ross believes that cultural competency can be learned and developed and can lead to unprecedented growth and vastly improved productivity, morale, internal communication, leadership, and customer satisfaction. Cook Ross has developed The Diversity Tool Kit (www.thediversitytoolkit.com) as another educational medium for learning diversity and cultural competency in all settings. In helping organizations develop cultural competence, the company empowers employees with a set of new skills, enabling them to relate more positively to customers and each other.