Lynn Todman, vice president of health equity and community partnerships at HAN member Corewell Health spoke with AHA Chair and HAN member Dartmouth Health CEO and president Dr. Joanne M. Conroy. The discussion focused on how hospitals and health systems can advance health equity and address social determinants of health by working with community partners.
From the AHA Leadership Dialogue interview of Lynn Todman:
It takes a long time [to develop relationships with community partners] because there’s a lot of trust building that has to happen in developing meaningful, authentic, and productive relationships.
The other thing that has to happen that’s a little bit difficult for large organizations is there needs to be a shift in the balance of power and so as a large organization we have lots of people, we have lots of resources—there’s Financial Resources, Human Resources, and we have to be very careful as we engage with organizations that don’t have the people, that don’t have the resources, because we’re not going to get the best out of those relationships if people feel, again the word that comes to mind is overwhelmed, but it’s not so much overwhelmed but overpowered in the relationship and feel that their voice isn’t going to hold as much weight and much gravitas as the organization.