Healthcare Anchor Network
Join a growing national collaboration of over 50 leading healthcare systems building more inclusive and sustainable local economies
You can’t create equitable health outcomes for America’s communities without tackling the underlying economic and racial disparities that drive them—the structural determinants of health. Healthcare Anchor Network members are committed to making sure their institutional and operational resources are aligned with their clinical mission.
It is undeniable: Racism is a public health crisis
39 health systems in 45 states and Washington, DC have committed to addressing racism and the public health disparities caused by racism. “As members and leaders of many healthcare organizations across the nation addressing the disproportionate Black and Brown mortality of the COVID-19 pandemic, we say without hesitation that Black Lives Matter.”
“Systemic racism results in generational trauma and poverty, while also unquestionably causing higher rates of illness and death in Black and Indigenous communities and communities of color. We must double down on our efforts. We stand united as frontline organizations against racism, injustice and inaction and commit to specific steps to help overcome the healthcare disparities in the communities we serve.”
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“ProMedica is proud to be one of the founding members of the Healthcare Anchor Network because as a non-profit, mission based healthcare organization we believe it is imperative to invest in our communities and help to drive economic prosperity through local hiring, purchasing and investing strategies. The Network provides a forum where we can come together with peer institutions who share our commitment to Anchor Institution strategies and where we can develop innovative solutions to challenges, that will ultimately improve the health and well-being of those we serve. By focusing on inclusive economic strategies, health care can use its considerable breadth and depth to positively impact the economic determinants of health.”
Randy Oostra
CEO and President,
ProMedica
“Our mission at Intermountain Healthcare is helping people live the healthiest lives possible.® It energizes us to improve the health of those who live in our communities. Healthcare has the opportunity to achieve this by addressing the social, economic, and environmental determinants of health. We’re striving to address these determinants in our business practices by practicing inclusive, local hiring while developing our supply chain toward more inclusive, local purchasing. We have also joined other Healthcare Anchor Network members in committing to being a place-based investor by dedicating a portion of our investments to local projects to generate measurable social and health impact, in addition to a modest financial return. We are designing these health impact investments to improve overall population health status, which will make healthcare more affordable for communities. The Healthcare Anchor Network provides a way for us to advance this work with our community partners, and it gives us many opportunities to learn from other innovative health systems.”
Mikelle Moore
Senior Vice President and Chief Community Health Officer, Intermountain Healthcare
“By our very nature, hospitals and health systems are anchor institutions in the neighborhoods we serve, and the well-being of our communities will always be an institutional priority. This is why Advocate Aurora Health was one of the co-founding members of the Healthcare Anchor Network, to convene the healthcare sector to implement socially responsible hiring, training, purchasing, and investment strategies. Healthcare can improve the social and economic factors that impact upstream determinants of health, lift local residents to strengthen our communities, and help lessen economic, racial and environmental inequities. The Healthcare Anchor Network helps us to advance new practices that help distressed communities to build up their local economy and community.”
Cristy Garcia-Thomas
Chief External Affairs Officer, Advocate Aurora Health
“Rush adopted a broader mission to ‘improve health’ in recognition of the ongoing health crises in the neighborhoods around our main campus on the West Side of Chicago. Significant health care inequities exist because there are additional factors that affect one’s health such as complex social, economic, and structural determinants of health including structural racism and economic deprivation. The anchor mission vision is part of Rush’s strategic plan and embedded in our institution’s DNA. We look at ourselves in the mirror and ask, what more can we do in this moment to be the change we want to see? The Healthcare Anchor Network helps us to accelerate the change process and our investing, hiring, purchasing, and volunteering in our communities, as well as amplify our message that racial equity must be central to our work as health care leaders and we must take action now.”
Dr. David Ansell
Senior Vice President for Community Health Equity, Rush University Medical Center
“As Henry Ford Health System continues to focus on uplifting healthy communities in the regions we serve, we lean on our relationship with the Healthcare Anchor Network for guidance, support, and sharing of critical information. It is vital that the entire healthcare sector explore and commit to investments in the social needs and determinants of health, and the HAN is leading the way to promote this activity and collaboration among its members. Henry Ford’s commitment to Detroit and the surrounding region is over a century old, yet continues to evolve as health and wellness needs change, and as we better understand their underpinnings. It is incumbent on leading health systems to orient their culture toward addressing persistent inequities, and we believe that active membership with HAN is a major component of our effort in this area.”
Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNITY HEALTH & EQUITY, HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM
“Recognizing the inseparable relationship between the social determinants of health and health outcomes, it is essential for health care to play a leadership role in addressing the systemic inequities that prevent members of our communities from experiencing good health. RWJBarnabas Health is extremely proud to be a co-founding member of the Healthcare Anchor Network. Together, as anchor institutions, we share a mission of developing more effective strategies and innovative solutions to leverage our purchasing, hiring, and investing to benefit the communities we serve.”
Barry H. Ostrowsky
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, RWJBARNABAS HEALTH
With over 50 health systems (and counting) represented in the Network, we bring together anchor institutions from across the country that together employ more than 1.5 million people, purchase over $50 billion annually, and have over $100 billion in investment assets.
The latest news from the field
Health Systems Advancing Digital Equity
When coronavirus caused over 1.5 million people in Ohio to file for unemployment benefits, many did not have a computer or access to the internet in order to apply for benefits. “Several residents came to my house to have me walk them through getting unemployment because they didn’t have a computer, and they didn’t know how to use the internet,” said Jones Home Neighbor Association President Rodney Lewallen. With people in need of internet access to stay afloat and receive necessary benefits during the pandemic, Lewallen allowed his Clark Fulton neighbors in Cleveland, Ohio to use his internet connection and computer to apply for the benefits that would keep them afloat.
Anchor institutions investing to address racial disparities
HAN member Providence St. Joseph Health announced a new commitment of $50 million over the next five years to reduce health disparities and achieve health equity, beginning with an immediate response to the impact of COVID-19, particularly for communities of color and those disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The health system published a recent study, which found that African Americans, Asians, and Latinos had a higher risk of COVID-19 infection, as well as people with housing issues living in low-income neighborhoods.
Continue Reading Anchor institutions investing to address racial disparities
It is undeniable: Racism is a public health crisis
39 health systems in 45 states and Washington, DC have committed to addressing racism and the public health disparities caused by racism. “As members and leaders of many healthcare organizations across the nation addressing the disproportionate Black and Brown mortality of the COVID-19 pandemic, we say without hesitation that Black Lives Matter.”
Continue Reading It is undeniable: Racism is a public health crisis
Impact investing for community centers and art spaces
Healthcare Anchor Network member UMass Memorial Health Care has announced a seven-year, $500,000 impact investment to Creative Hub Worcester, a proposed arts and events community center. The 40,000-square-foot facility can hold up to 300 people and will include two dance studios and performance space, more than a dozen small studios for artists, three classrooms, a child care center, and a rooftop event space. “Through our work with them, we learned a lot about how art really does help people from a mental health perspective,” [Creative Hub Co-founder] Marotta said of UMass Memorial Health Care.
Continue Reading Impact investing for community centers and art spaces
Supporting minority-owned businesses in disinvested communities
In an article in Forbes, Healthcare Anchor Network member RWJBarnabas Health’s President and CEO Barry H. Ostrowsky and Michellene Davis, Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, write about four ways that large scale corporations can begin to promote an anchor institution approach. They point out that “COVID-19 has underscored the fact that band-aid solutions cannot undo systemic barriers. The economic crisis has disproportionately impacted minority-owned businesses in already disinvested communities.”
Continue Reading Supporting minority-owned businesses in disinvested communities
Implementing anchor mission goals while battling the pandemic
Healthcare Anchor Network member Kaiser Permanente has committed $63 million to support contact tracing in California that will involve partnering with the Public Health Institute to hire and train 500 full-time residents from the hardest hit communities to be contract tracers. In addition to a quality job, the program will be positioning these individuals for ongoing employment with training and long-term career support. The funding will also connect Californians in self-imposed isolation and quarantine with supportive services to help with essentials needs such as food, housing, and medicine.
Continue Reading Implementing anchor mission goals while battling the pandemic
Healthcare anchors investing in affordable housing to improve health and well-being
Healthcare Anchor Network member CommonSpirit Health, along with UnitedHealthcare and Aetna, has committed $35 million in financing to launch the Home Matters Arizona Fund for affordable housing projects. The project will invest $100 million in phase one to finance community development and affordable housing projects that proactively foster connected and healthier lives. From the Home…
Continue Reading Healthcare anchors investing in affordable housing to improve health and well-being
Preserving affordable housing through anchor impact investing
Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) member Intermountain Healthcare, along with a group of private institutions including the Clark and Christine Ivory Foundation and Zions Bank, created the Utah Housing Preservation Fund with the goal of raising $100 million to preserve subsidized and “naturally occurring” affordable housing. This year, the Preservation Fund helped secure 24 duplexes that will be rehabbed and targeted for rental to Housing Choice Voucher holders who earn less than 30 percent of Area Median Income.
Continue Reading Preserving affordable housing through anchor impact investing
Current participants in the Healthcare Anchor Network include:
“An anchor mission means sustainably investing in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, addressing not just health disparities, but economic and racial inequities as well.”
—David Zuckerman, Director of the Healthcare Anchor Network
