Selected Podcast
Ep. 6: Community Benefit: It's More Than Dollars and Cents
Roxanna Gapstur and her guest Maria Royce discuss WellSpan's non-profit mission and community involvement.
Featuring:
Maria Royce | Roxanna Gapstur PhD, RN
Ms. Royce provides leadership across WellSpan Health in the areas of strategic and operational planning, community health improvement, philanthropy, marketing, communications and community partnerships. She joined WellSpan in 1992 as director of public and corporate relations and later served the organization as director of planning and marketing and vice president of community relations. Prior to coming to York, Ms. Royce was director of public relations for Ohio Valley General Hospital in Pittsburgh. She holds a bachelor's degree from LaRoche College, Pittsburgh, and a master's degree in public administration/non-profit management from the University of Pittsburgh. Transcription:
Michael Carrese (Host): Welcome to Inspiring Health, a series of conversations with Roxanna Gapstur and other WellSpan leaders about WellSpan 2025. I’m Michael Carrese and Roxanna what are we going to be talking about today?
Roxanna Gapstur (Guest): Well today we’re going to be talking about WellSpan’s nonprofit mission. Our mission is rooted in improving the health of our community and as a nonprofit, we have special obligations to our community. The assets of our organization are really owned by our community. And an important part of being a nonprofit, is our community benefit and how we demonstrate that to our community.
Host: And who is your special guest who is going to help guide us through all of that?
Roxanna: My guest today is Maria Royce. Maria is our Senior Vice President for Strategy and Market Development. And she has responsibility for community benefit across our entire organization.
Host: So, Maria, let’s start right from the very basics here. What does it mean to be a nonprofit organization?
Maria Royce (Guest): I’d like to think about our mission for a second because that really is what guides us and I really think our charitable mission is the heart and soul of this organization. And when I think about that, I really think about us as an organization looking to not only take care of people when they are well but to keep them healthy in the first place. So, we’ve understood for many, many years that good health requires more than exceptional healthcare, the exceptional healthcare that we provide. It’s really our role to work with our local communities and to work with many partners and be a catalyst for the changes to address social, demographic, behavioral, economic issues that really face our neighbors and communities.
So, when I see that mission focused charitable area, I think of that simple phrase for all. That’s the middle of our mission statement. And I’m reminded of our commitment to lead the way in equity. To really lead the way. That it doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, what your social or economic situation is; we’re working as an organization. WellSpan is working. We are working as one to remove barriers, to support each member of our community in reaching their own health goals.
Host: And Roxanna, I know you were drawn to WellSpan because of that sense of community. Why is it so important?
Roxanna: I think today in our country we all know that although we spend a lot of money on healthcare; our health outcomes aren’t as good as some other nations. And that’s something that I know each and every one of us takes very seriously here at WellSpan. And Maria just touched on a lot of the aspects of why it’s so important for us as a not for profit organization. We need to improve health and to do that, we need to be sure that we can address social needs as well as medical and behavioral health needs.
Host: Time for another definition. Community benefit. What does that mean?
Roxanna: Community benefit in general is more of a regulatory term I would say, and it means things like charity care, so offering to provide free care to those who can’t pay, offering to do community outreach, offering Medicaid assistance. But those things are sort of the dollars and cents of community benefit. And although they’re important, here at WellSpan, we think there’s more to community benefit than dollars and cents. So, for instance, as one example, we take very seriously our role as a healthcare organization in providing future education for healthcare leaders. So, we train residents, medical students, nursing students, physical therapists and pharmacists. These are part of our community benefit as well.
Host: Yeah, it’s not just the dollars and cents. And Maria, how does this work come to life?
Maria: it’s not really by chance that all of our communities now rank in the top 20 healthiest communities among the 67 counties in Pennsylvania. That has been very purposeful work. We have a strong foundation in primary care and prevention, and we’ve been a leader in this community health movement, really thinking about how we assess and understand more deeply the needs of our community, develop those improvement plans to address gaps. Sometimes internally, sometimes in partnership with those communities, our community partners. We’ve been doing that for over 25 years, long before healthcare organizations were required to use those community benefit regulatory definitions that exist.
We have a deep understanding and that’s where it all starts. Our community needs assessments are posted online, and this is really a great way for all of our team members to get to know not only information about the community but more importantly, understand where some of those disparities exist.
Host: And you also partnership with federally qualified health centers which really are focused more on lower income folks, right?
Maria: We actually have a partnership with three of our community health centers. That’s Family First Health, Welsh Mountain and Keystone Health. We’ve built innovative programs, Caring Together a unique partnership based HIV program. We have a school-based health clinic. We do migrant health programs with our FQHCs, but we’re also working in really new ways. And I’m so excited about that.
Two of our FQHCs Welsh Mountain and soon Keystone will be part of our electronic health record. And that will help us understand the needs of their and our patients in much better ways. And Family First, we’re building a whole new care model for vulnerable population in our Lebanon community.
Host: Yeah, well you are out there in so, so many ways. And what about the community coalitions that you have?
Maria: Yeah, so this is an interesting structure that we developed many years ago. And these are health coalitions in each of our communities. WellSpan is a catalyst or a backbone support for those coalitions providing funding. Many of our leaders involved with that and then we have excellent coalition directors who bring together multiple sectors.
Host: So, in addition to doing all that work side by side with these great organizations, you also have a community partnership grant program. Tell me about that.
Maria: We actually have two of them in our system right now. We have the WellSpan Community Partnership Grant Program and the Summit Endowment. Both are focused on developing support and capacity for nonprofit organizations to address some of those important community health needs we identified earlier. So, these are grant-structured programs. We’ve, over the years, provided millions to support change in our community and enable others to work alongside of us for change. We’re hosting dialogues with youth on racism, with the York YWCA. We’re working with Volunteers in Medicine, a group in Lebanon to develop diabetes prevention classes geared towards some of our Spanish speaking residents and patients. Those are just an example of a number of ways that we’re working with the community and how we use our funding to help create a catalyst for change.
And we’re going to evolve that a bit as our strategic plan, as our 2025 plan really has us thinking about not just the mission of community health, but the real impact of community health and how it’s really part of our new business model. We’ll be taking some new big steps in this area as well. So, everybody should stay tuned on that.
Host: So, Roxanna what are some projects that stand out for you over the last year?
Roxanna: There are so many Michael, but I will just mention a couple here. So, housing and security is a real big priority for WellSpan right now. And actually this past year WellSpan won the Hospital and Health System Association award called Living the Vision Award and that award was for addressing housing and security in people after discharge from the hospital. So, when people don’t have a safe or reliable place to go to recover, we’ve identified at least three programs that we’ve funded now that can help individuals who need a safe place to go. And that has literally been lifechanging for some of our patients who have been homeless.
So, that’s one that I would call out. The second I would call out in Franklin Adams County our partnership with South Central Community Action Program around food insecurity which happens to be another priority of ours. That partnership has taken more than 300,000 pounds of fresh produce and distributed it in the community to provide healthy food for people who need it. We think that those kinds of partnerships can really make an impact in our communities and a deeper impact than just trying to work with multiple organizations. And you heard Maria mention that we do have lots of different partners but there’s a couple of areas where we plan to go deeper, and housing and food insecurity are two of those areas.
Host: So, as we wrap up here Maria, how can folks learn more about all the community benefit activities?
Maria: First I would encourage them to go to www.WellSpan.org/neighbors to learn more about what we have going on in the organization. Our employees rock on this topic. This is an area where we have so many people involved, and I am really proud of that. And they’re involved not only in serving on boards or working on walks or working on these initiatives, but they are actively involved in really thinking about how we can know our communities in different ways.
Host: Well as you said at the beginning, the community orientation is really the heart and soul of WellSpan in a lot of ways. And Roxanna, how can listeners get engaged in this work?
Roxanna: I think some of the ways Maria just mentioned but in addition to that, I would say once you become informed, become and ambassador, share our stories both internally and externally. This is something that we’re very proud of at WellSpan and we have made an impact in our communities that has made a difference in the lives of many of our friends and neighbors. And I just want to thank all of our employees who are volunteers, who work on boards and who are connected to our communities because it really helps us as WellSpan become that trusted partner which is part of our new vision for 2025.
Host: Well that’s a great point Roxanna. We will have to end it there for today. You’ve been listening to Inspiring Health, a series of conversations with Roxanna Gapstur and other WellSpan leaders about WellSpan 2025. Roxanna’s guest today has been Maria Royce. Thanks for listening.
Michael Carrese (Host): Welcome to Inspiring Health, a series of conversations with Roxanna Gapstur and other WellSpan leaders about WellSpan 2025. I’m Michael Carrese and Roxanna what are we going to be talking about today?
Roxanna Gapstur (Guest): Well today we’re going to be talking about WellSpan’s nonprofit mission. Our mission is rooted in improving the health of our community and as a nonprofit, we have special obligations to our community. The assets of our organization are really owned by our community. And an important part of being a nonprofit, is our community benefit and how we demonstrate that to our community.
Host: And who is your special guest who is going to help guide us through all of that?
Roxanna: My guest today is Maria Royce. Maria is our Senior Vice President for Strategy and Market Development. And she has responsibility for community benefit across our entire organization.
Host: So, Maria, let’s start right from the very basics here. What does it mean to be a nonprofit organization?
Maria Royce (Guest): I’d like to think about our mission for a second because that really is what guides us and I really think our charitable mission is the heart and soul of this organization. And when I think about that, I really think about us as an organization looking to not only take care of people when they are well but to keep them healthy in the first place. So, we’ve understood for many, many years that good health requires more than exceptional healthcare, the exceptional healthcare that we provide. It’s really our role to work with our local communities and to work with many partners and be a catalyst for the changes to address social, demographic, behavioral, economic issues that really face our neighbors and communities.
So, when I see that mission focused charitable area, I think of that simple phrase for all. That’s the middle of our mission statement. And I’m reminded of our commitment to lead the way in equity. To really lead the way. That it doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, what your social or economic situation is; we’re working as an organization. WellSpan is working. We are working as one to remove barriers, to support each member of our community in reaching their own health goals.
Host: And Roxanna, I know you were drawn to WellSpan because of that sense of community. Why is it so important?
Roxanna: I think today in our country we all know that although we spend a lot of money on healthcare; our health outcomes aren’t as good as some other nations. And that’s something that I know each and every one of us takes very seriously here at WellSpan. And Maria just touched on a lot of the aspects of why it’s so important for us as a not for profit organization. We need to improve health and to do that, we need to be sure that we can address social needs as well as medical and behavioral health needs.
Host: Time for another definition. Community benefit. What does that mean?
Roxanna: Community benefit in general is more of a regulatory term I would say, and it means things like charity care, so offering to provide free care to those who can’t pay, offering to do community outreach, offering Medicaid assistance. But those things are sort of the dollars and cents of community benefit. And although they’re important, here at WellSpan, we think there’s more to community benefit than dollars and cents. So, for instance, as one example, we take very seriously our role as a healthcare organization in providing future education for healthcare leaders. So, we train residents, medical students, nursing students, physical therapists and pharmacists. These are part of our community benefit as well.
Host: Yeah, it’s not just the dollars and cents. And Maria, how does this work come to life?
Maria: it’s not really by chance that all of our communities now rank in the top 20 healthiest communities among the 67 counties in Pennsylvania. That has been very purposeful work. We have a strong foundation in primary care and prevention, and we’ve been a leader in this community health movement, really thinking about how we assess and understand more deeply the needs of our community, develop those improvement plans to address gaps. Sometimes internally, sometimes in partnership with those communities, our community partners. We’ve been doing that for over 25 years, long before healthcare organizations were required to use those community benefit regulatory definitions that exist.
We have a deep understanding and that’s where it all starts. Our community needs assessments are posted online, and this is really a great way for all of our team members to get to know not only information about the community but more importantly, understand where some of those disparities exist.
Host: And you also partnership with federally qualified health centers which really are focused more on lower income folks, right?
Maria: We actually have a partnership with three of our community health centers. That’s Family First Health, Welsh Mountain and Keystone Health. We’ve built innovative programs, Caring Together a unique partnership based HIV program. We have a school-based health clinic. We do migrant health programs with our FQHCs, but we’re also working in really new ways. And I’m so excited about that.
Two of our FQHCs Welsh Mountain and soon Keystone will be part of our electronic health record. And that will help us understand the needs of their and our patients in much better ways. And Family First, we’re building a whole new care model for vulnerable population in our Lebanon community.
Host: Yeah, well you are out there in so, so many ways. And what about the community coalitions that you have?
Maria: Yeah, so this is an interesting structure that we developed many years ago. And these are health coalitions in each of our communities. WellSpan is a catalyst or a backbone support for those coalitions providing funding. Many of our leaders involved with that and then we have excellent coalition directors who bring together multiple sectors.
Host: So, in addition to doing all that work side by side with these great organizations, you also have a community partnership grant program. Tell me about that.
Maria: We actually have two of them in our system right now. We have the WellSpan Community Partnership Grant Program and the Summit Endowment. Both are focused on developing support and capacity for nonprofit organizations to address some of those important community health needs we identified earlier. So, these are grant-structured programs. We’ve, over the years, provided millions to support change in our community and enable others to work alongside of us for change. We’re hosting dialogues with youth on racism, with the York YWCA. We’re working with Volunteers in Medicine, a group in Lebanon to develop diabetes prevention classes geared towards some of our Spanish speaking residents and patients. Those are just an example of a number of ways that we’re working with the community and how we use our funding to help create a catalyst for change.
And we’re going to evolve that a bit as our strategic plan, as our 2025 plan really has us thinking about not just the mission of community health, but the real impact of community health and how it’s really part of our new business model. We’ll be taking some new big steps in this area as well. So, everybody should stay tuned on that.
Host: So, Roxanna what are some projects that stand out for you over the last year?
Roxanna: There are so many Michael, but I will just mention a couple here. So, housing and security is a real big priority for WellSpan right now. And actually this past year WellSpan won the Hospital and Health System Association award called Living the Vision Award and that award was for addressing housing and security in people after discharge from the hospital. So, when people don’t have a safe or reliable place to go to recover, we’ve identified at least three programs that we’ve funded now that can help individuals who need a safe place to go. And that has literally been lifechanging for some of our patients who have been homeless.
So, that’s one that I would call out. The second I would call out in Franklin Adams County our partnership with South Central Community Action Program around food insecurity which happens to be another priority of ours. That partnership has taken more than 300,000 pounds of fresh produce and distributed it in the community to provide healthy food for people who need it. We think that those kinds of partnerships can really make an impact in our communities and a deeper impact than just trying to work with multiple organizations. And you heard Maria mention that we do have lots of different partners but there’s a couple of areas where we plan to go deeper, and housing and food insecurity are two of those areas.
Host: So, as we wrap up here Maria, how can folks learn more about all the community benefit activities?
Maria: First I would encourage them to go to www.WellSpan.org/neighbors to learn more about what we have going on in the organization. Our employees rock on this topic. This is an area where we have so many people involved, and I am really proud of that. And they’re involved not only in serving on boards or working on walks or working on these initiatives, but they are actively involved in really thinking about how we can know our communities in different ways.
Host: Well as you said at the beginning, the community orientation is really the heart and soul of WellSpan in a lot of ways. And Roxanna, how can listeners get engaged in this work?
Roxanna: I think some of the ways Maria just mentioned but in addition to that, I would say once you become informed, become and ambassador, share our stories both internally and externally. This is something that we’re very proud of at WellSpan and we have made an impact in our communities that has made a difference in the lives of many of our friends and neighbors. And I just want to thank all of our employees who are volunteers, who work on boards and who are connected to our communities because it really helps us as WellSpan become that trusted partner which is part of our new vision for 2025.
Host: Well that’s a great point Roxanna. We will have to end it there for today. You’ve been listening to Inspiring Health, a series of conversations with Roxanna Gapstur and other WellSpan leaders about WellSpan 2025. Roxanna’s guest today has been Maria Royce. Thanks for listening.