News and updates

HAN member Rush University Medical Center’s David Ansell, senior vice president for community health equity, spoke about the Chicago Hospital Engagement, Action and Leadership Initiative, or HEAL, that HAN members Advocate Christ Medical Center, AMITA Health’s Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center, and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago are also members of. The HEAL action plan utilizes three pillars to address violence in 18 neighborhoods in Chicago. One of the key pillars is the anchor mission strategy of increasing local training and hiring commitments to reduce economic hardship.

Across the country we have seen community members mobilize to volunteer, donate, and produce needed medical supplies and equipment for our hospitals throughout the pandemic. Healthcare Anchor Network members’ anchor mission strategies of community engagement, volunteerism, and local inclusive procurement positioned them to move swiftly. Some examples include HAN members Intermountain Healthcare and University of Utah Health, along with several faith and nonprofit groups, creating ProjectProtect which is a grassroots initiative that enlisted more than 50,000 Utahns to produce half a million medical-grade masks for frontline caregivers treating COVID-19 patients and for vulnerable community members.

Healthcare Anchor Network member Maimonides Medical Center’s anchor mission approach is spotlighted in Building a Culture of Health in Central Brooklyn: From Protest to Health Systems Transformation, published by MIT CoLab. The case study tells the story of the partnership between the Coalition to Save and Transform Interfaith, Maimonides Hospital’s Community Care of Brooklyn, and Central Brooklyn residents and community leaders, that activated major cross-sector institutional commitments and investments in health equity.

The Democracy Collaborative prepared a report, created for the Healthcare Anchor Network, that looked at how racial and ethnic disparities in the economy are showing up in the COVID-19 pandemic and in the public policy response to the pandemic. The report also covers how the economic effects of the pandemic will likely impact racial and ethnic inequality.

The COVID-19 crisis and nationwide uprisings against police violence have magnified the connection between systemic racism, social and economic inequities and poor health outcomes. How can anchor institutions meet this moment to address the physical, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic and begin to repair the harm caused by systemic racism in communities? This webinar on August 6 will share how Kaiser Permanente is leveraging its assets to rebuild local economies, address social needs, and advance racial equity.

Healthcare Anchor Network members Advocate Aurora Health, AMITA Health, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Rush University Medical Center were co-signers to a pivotal and ground-breaking joint statement published in Chicago newspapers declaring systemic racism a public health crisis. The signatory institutions are a part of the City of Chicago’s Racial Equity Rapid Response Team.

This opinion piece co-authored by Weston Consulting CEO Marla J. Weston, PhD, RN, (formerly the CEO of the American Nurses Association Enterprise), Healthcare Anchor Network manager for communications and policy Bich Ha Pham, and HAN director David Zuckerman in the Nursing Administration Quarterly aims to further engage nurses as anchor mission leaders. The article describes how anchor mission hospitals and health systems are leveraging local and inclusive hiring and purchasing, and impact investing to transform the economic and consequent health and well-being of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals and neighborhoods.

Dr. Thomas Dean Sequist, Chief Patient Experience and Equity Officer at Healthcare Anchor Network member Mass General Brigham, testified at the U.S. House of Representative’s hearing on the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color. He spoke about about the impact the pandemic has had in Chelsea, MA, as well as on the Navajo reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico.