Healthcare Anchor Network
Join a growing national collaboration of 60 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
40 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.”
Join the Healthcare Anchor Network to…
“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 60 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 Announce Commitment to Increase MWBE Spending by $1B to Improve Supplier Diversity & Build Community Wealth
PRESS RELEASE Contact: Bich Ha Pham, Director, Communications & Policy, Healthcare Anchor Network, 202-559-1473 ext 3011, bpham@democracycollaborative.org Contact: Lindsey Corey, Director, Communications, Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth, press@hcwh.org A dozen health systems, some of the largest companies in their states, announced major shifts in procurement strategies to help address the economic, racial, and environmental disparities…
Connecting health equity and the anchor mission
Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) member Rush University Medical Center’s adoption of an organizational anchor mission and equity strategy to address the social and structural determinants of health is detailed in the NEJM article and covers Rush’s launch of a health care equity strategy; the creation of the Rush health equity framework, including the creation of West Side United…
Continue Reading Connecting health equity and the anchor mission
HAN’s Policy Day leveraged health system voices for housing
On May 12th, HAN held its third Housing for Health Policy Day with the largest turn out yet for our annual event. We were joined by Sen. Todd Young, Rep. Jim McGovern and Rep. Dwight Evans, with a recorded message from Sen. Sherrod Brown. The Congressional members spoke about the importance of stable, affordable, and healthy housing, and…
Continue Reading HAN’s Policy Day leveraged health system voices for housing
Anchor institutions focus on policy change for more impact
Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) members are investing in and supporting affordable housing. One example is Boston Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital providing $3 million over three years for housing stability in Boston through the Innovative Stable Housing Initiative (ISHI). In addition to funding and investing support, HAN members are also working to address upstream…
Continue Reading Anchor institutions focus on policy change for more impact
Health anchors uplifting the economic trajectory & workforce
Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) members ProMedica, RWJBarnabas Health, and UC Davis Health are supporting job training and local hiring for community residents. UC Davis Health will be entering into a Community Benefit Agreement to provide jobs, job training, affordable housing, better transportation options, and youth education as part of its $3.75 billion plan to rebuild and expand the UC Davis…
Continue Reading Health anchors uplifting the economic trajectory & workforce
Anchors helping local small businesses get back on their feet
HAN’s blog article highlights that by practicing local and diverse procurement, the health sector can support business development that has equitable economic and social impacts. From the HAN article:When local and minority and women owned businesses are awarded procurement contracts by health institutions, they are able to employ local residents and provide stable wages. This local…
Continue Reading Anchors helping local small businesses get back on their feet
Community health and gun violence prevention
HAN member Northwell Health has initiated the Gun Violence Prevention Learning Collaborative for Health Systems and Hospitals to share and develop best practices for reducing gun violence. The interactive forum unites healthcare organizations looking to the combat public health crisis. HAN members CommonSpirit Health and Mass General Brigham along with more than 300 health system leaders have signed onto the collaborative. Read the…
Continue Reading Community health and gun violence prevention
Community health & impact investing
HAN member Providence’s leaders and Well Being Trust’s Tyler Norris discuss seven Standards of Excellence in Community Health Investments for broad consideration by health care systems and partners. They stress that a focus on the “vital conditions for intergenerational well-being” must be at the core of health systems’ efforts to deliver measurable outcomes and include HAN and the anchor mission framework…
Hospital and Health System Members of the Healthcare Anchor Network include:
State Hospital Association Members 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, Executive Director of the Healthcare Anchor Network
