HAN catalyzes health systems individually and collectively to leverage their hiring, purchasing, investing, and other key institutional assets to create stronger local economies that sustain healthy communities.
We call this intentional commitment—to apply an institutions place-based economic power in partnership with community to create mutual benefit—the anchor mission.
Values
Integrity
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Curiosity
Camaraderie
Courage
Health systems are anchor institutions because they are significant economic engines with an embedded social mission that are rooted in place and inextricably linked to the vitality of the communities they are situated in. The anchor mission is an intentional commitment to apply an anchor institution’s long-term, place-based economic power and human capital in partnership with community to mutually benefit the long-term well-being of both.
Through this anchor mission approach, HAN staff work to cultivate champions at our health system members to fully activate their organization’s unique platform as a leading community institution in partnership with others to meaningfully address economic and health inequities in community conditions that create poor health.
This approach is grounded in Community Wealth Building: a place-based approach to economic development that promotes the local, democratic, and shared ownership and control of community assets—and the recirculation of existing wealth back into the local economy—to produce broadly shared economic prosperity and ecological sustainability.
The anchor mission allows organizations to drive social impact by aligning their operations more powerfully and strategically to achieve healthcare’s expanding mission of improving community health and well-being and fully realizing their potential as a locally rooted community asset.
In December 2016, leaders from 40 health systems across the U.S. gathered in Washington, DC to explore how their systems could more fully harness their economic power to inclusively and sustainably benefit the long-term health and well-being of the communities they serve. This convening led to the launch of the Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) in May 2017, representing a critical milestone in mobilizing the healthcare sector towards action and collaboration.
Founding members of the Healthcare Anchor Network include Advocate Aurora Health, CommonSpirit Health, Henry Ford Health, Kaiser Permanente, ProMedica, Providence, Rush University System for Health, RWJBarnabas Health, Trinity Health, and UMass Memorial Health. Today, over 70 hospitals and health systems are HAN members.
HAN supports health systems in implementing the anchor mission by:
- raising the bar for anchor mission strategies through defining best-in-class commitments and leveraging sector recognition
- accelerating the adoption of anchor strategies internally, in partnership with other anchors, and in authentic collaboration with community
- fostering high-impact industry collaboration to scale impact of anchor mission approach
HAN provides strategic support, curates deep dive peer conversations and facilitates initiative workgroups for members as they develop, launch, grow, and institutionalize anchor mission strategies at their institutions.
These structured learning opportunities help members develop the necessary tools, frameworks, and relationships, and to address common challenges needed to accelerate anchor strategies. HAN convenes health systems twice annually. HAN also administers an annual data collection process around core anchor strategies and supports a member-only online community platform that provides tools and resources to help meet specific needs.
HAN members identified priority areas for the work they are advancing together, with initiative groups focused around:
- advancing the organizational imperative for adopting and implementing an anchor mission
- effective collaboration with community stakeholders in implementing anchor strategies
- building evidence of the impact of these strategies and assessing our member’s progress through a yearly data collection process
- developing a shared policy and advocacy agenda around addressing the nonmedical drivers of health
- implementing anchor strategies around impact workforce; place-based investing; and impact purchasing
- leveraging internal and external philanthropy to catalyze other anchor strategies
Healthcare leaders are uniquely positioned and incentivized to play a more active role in supporting local economies. The time is now for an expansion and deepening of this work in our communities, and leaders in the field are rising to the occasion. Membership in the Healthcare Anchor Network is open to representatives of all health systems that can bring their energy, insight, and innovation to the collective work. Join us in advancing the anchor mission of healthcare. For further information on joining the Healthcare Anchor Network, please let us know a little about you and your institution here or just reach out directly to Carol Gaudino at membership@anchornetwork.org.
Current Members and Member Insights
“Trinity Health is proud to be a co-founding member of HAN. Improving the health of individuals and communities is at the core of Trinity Health’s Mission. It’s why we became a founding member of HAN. We have a special commitment to those experiencing poverty and other vulnerabilities, and we believe that promise starts with addressing the social influencers of health. We see HAN as a partner in advancing key anchor strategies like local hiring, sourcing, and investing. Through HAN, we can learn from, but also support other health systems to accelerate the anchor mission approach across the country. This is collaborative leadership in action.”
Mike Slubowski
president and chief executive officer,
trinity health
“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
“At Cleveland Clinic, we know that care goes beyond our four walls. By being intentional about who we hire, where we purchase our goods and services, and where we invest, we can make a meaningful, measurable, and lasting impact on the lives of our neighbors. We are particularly proud of our supply chain collaboration with Evergreen Cooperatives, a Cleveland non-profit organization invested in creating employee-owned cooperatives. These cooperatives create sustainable jobs within low-wealth communities while driving economic stability. Our partnership with Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, a high-quality commercial laundry service, has resulted in the restoration of local healthcare systems’ linen laundry services while supporting long-term community impact. The Healthcare Anchor Network acts as a key partner in helping us connect with other leading, like-minded health systems on these types of economic inclusion initiatives.”
Steve Downey
Chief Supply Chain and Patient Support Services Officer, Cleveland Clinic
“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 system for health
Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) Non-Discrimination Policy Statement
At our organization, we value all employees and job candidates as unique individuals, and we welcome the variety of experiences they bring to our company. As such, we have a strict non-discrimination policy. We believe everyone should be treated equally regardless of race, sex, gender identification, sexual orientation, national origin, native language, religion, age, disability, marital status, citizenship, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other characteristic protected by law.