Rhode to Equity Hosts CommonSpirit Health Speaker

  • 08 Sep 2022

In August, Rhode to Equity invited Pablo Bravo, System Vice President, Community Health at CommonSpirit Health for its subject matter expert session.  

CommonSpirit is one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the U.S. with more than 1,000 care sites in 21 states, serving 20 million patients. CommonSpirit Health has made significant investments and partnerships with community service organizations to address the social and economic needs of their patients including funding community loans, investing in homeless health initiatives and launching a Pathways Community (PCH) HUB Model. Pablo talked about how health care systems can invest in housing, serving as a conduit to more equitable, affordable and safe neighborhoods. In this session, almost 60 participants:  

  1. Heard from a large health system senior leader on why and how this work became a priority for CommonSpirit and learned what motivations and organizational imperatives drive the desire to commit significant resources to addressing humane housing as a vital condition for well-being. 
  2. Gained understanding on how a health system’s anchor mission strategy encouraged them to develop a non-traditional investment portfolio approach to health equity while recognizing that the community benefit imperative requires going above and beyond grants and short-term outcomes/returns. 
  3. Gained understanding on how to frame this work internally with key health system leaders to garner allies and additional support and communicate with key community stakeholders and stewards to build trust and resilience. 
  4. Gained understanding on measurement, impact, and outcome goals and how this works translates into formal advocacy and policy work beyond the programs.