Community Benefits & Health Needs

Addressing Community Health Needs

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s (BIDMC) Community Benefits work is guided by these Guiding Principles:

• Accountability: Hold each other to efficient, effective and accurate processes to achieve our system, department and communities' collective goals.
• Community Engagement: Collaborate meaningfully, intentionally and respectfully with our community partners, and support processes initiated, driven and led by the community, especially with populations experiencing the greatest inequities.
• Equity: Apply an equity lens to achieve fair and just treatment so that all communities and people can achieve their full health and overall potential.
• Impact: Employ evidence-based and evidence-informed strategies that align with system and community priorities to drive measurable change in health outcomes.

These guiding principles support BIDMC’s mission to serve our patients compassionately and effectively, and to create a healthy future for them and their families. This mission is supported by BIDMC’s commitment to personalized, excellent care for patients; a workforce committed to individual accountability, mutual respect, and collaboration; and a commitment to maintaining its financial health.

The medical center is also committed to being active in the community; service to the community is at the core and an important part of its mission. BIDMC has a covenant to care for the underserved and to work to change disparities in access to care; to be successful, BIDMC needs to learn from those it serves.

More broadly, BIDMC’s Community Benefits mission is fulfilled by:

• Involving BIDMC’s staff, including its leadership and dozens of community partners in the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) process as well as in the development, implementation, and oversight of the hospital’s three-year Implementation Strategy (IS).
• Engaging and learning from residents throughout BIDMC’s Community Benefits Service Area (CBSA) in all aspects of the Community Benefits process, with special attention focused on engaging diverse perspectives, from those, patients and non-patients alike, who are often left out of similar assessment, planning and program implementation processes.
• Assessing unmet community need by collecting primary and secondary data (both quantitative and qualitative) to understand unmet health-related needs and identify communities and population segments disproportionately impacted by health issues and other social, economic and systemic factors.
• Implementing community health programs and services in BIDMC’s CBSA that address the underlying social determinants of health, barriers to accessing care, as well as promote equity to improve the health status of those who are often disadvantaged, face disparities in health-related outcomes, experience poverty, and have been historically underserved.
• Promoting health equity by ensuring that all patients are welcomed and received with respect and have access to culturally responsive care.
• Facilitating collaboration and partnership within and across sectors (e.g., state/local public health agencies, healthcare providers, social service organizations, businesses, academic institutions, community health collaboratives, and other community health organizations) to advocate for, support, and implement effective health policies, community programs, and services.

BIDMC’s community benefits work, including the Community Health Needs Assessment process, is guided by the Community Benefits Advisory Committee (CBAC).