Boston Medical Center Awarded The 2024 AHA Foster G. McGaw Prize

Englewood Health from New Jersey and NewYork-Presbyterian from New York Also Honored

WASHINGTON (July 18, 2024) - The American Hospital Association (AHA) announced today that Boston Medical Center (BMC) is the 2024 winner of the AHA's Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service. BMC is a private, not-for-profit, equity-led academic medical center located in the South End neighborhood of Boston. BMC is the primary teaching affiliate of Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and has a long history of delivering excellent clinical care to patients regardless of their ability to pay. As the largest essential hospital in New England, BMC understands that equitable health outcomes necessitate going beyond what is traditionally offered in the health care setting, engaging the community, and addressing the root causes for health inequities. BMC is the flagship entity of the Boston Medical Center Health System, an integrated health care system that models a new kind of excellence in health care where clinical and operational innovation meets health equity and access.

The Foster G. McGaw Prize is sponsored by the Baxter International Foundation, the AHA and AHA's non-profit affiliate Health Research & Educational Trust. The prize is given annually to a health care organization that has shown exceptional commitment to community health and developing innovative partnerships with community organizations to address societal factors influencing health and improving access to high quality, safe and equitable health care.

BMC Health System will receive $100,000 toward programs that further these goals during the AHA Leadership Summit in San Diego on July 22, 2024.

"Boston Medical Center is a national leader in going outside the four walls of the hospital and into the community to advance health care access and outcomes, especially for the most underserved," said Rick Pollack, AHA president and CEO. "By working diligently with a wide range of community partners - including nontraditional ones - Boston Medical Center serves as a model to the hospital field in efforts to reduce health and social inequities."

"On behalf of the Baxter International Foundation, I want to congratulate Boston Medical Center on their unwavering dedication to improving access to quality healthcare in the Boston area," said Verónica Arroyave, executive director of the Baxter International Foundation and vice president of corporate responsibility and global philanthropy at Baxter. "We are delighted to continue partnering with AHA to support prize recipients and finalists, whose programming aligns with our commitment to making a meaningful difference for underserved communities and patients across the globe."

"Boston Medical Center is committed to transforming how care is delivered, from cutting-edge clinical treatments and research in our hospital to unique partnerships in the community," said Alastair Bell, President & CEO of Boston Medical Center Health System. "Our approach to healthcare holistically addresses issues such as housing and food insecurity, environmental sustainability, and economic mobility. By working upstream, we are able to understand the root causes of health disparities and implement innovative solutions that improve health and wellbeing."

Boston Medical Center's strong initiatives include:

• BMC implemented a social determinants of health screener for primary care patients in 2017 after a 6-month study period of new patients. The electronic health record (EHR) model, called THRIVE, screens patients for unmet social needs, such as food and housing insecurity, and helps clinicians to automatically provide referral information for resources both at the hospital and within the community.
• In 2020, the hospital devoted more than a year to investigating racial health disparities observed across the organization, which resulted in the launching of the Health Equity Accelerator (HEA), a system-wide approach to holistically address the root causes of health inequities. The HEA is an ambitious and aggressive initiative that aims to eliminate the race-based health equity gaps that exist throughout the healthcare field in the U.S. The Accelerator's approach is to integrate three foundational vectors that are often siloed in healthcare: research, clinical care, and community. By actively engaging with key community stakeholders, BMC identified five clinical areas as having the most pressing racial health inequities: maternal and child health, infectious disease, behavioral health, chronic conditions, and oncology and end-stage renal disease.
  • In one of the HEA's first areas of focus, BMC found that Black maternity patients were 1.7 times more likely to experience severe complications during birth than White maternity patients. A multidisciplinary team discovered that BMC needed to address preeclampsia, and a number of steps were undertaken, including: expanding the doula program, disseminating patient-facing videos for education on preeclampsia, and expanding a remote hypertension monitoring program. This aligns with the HEA's goal of accelerating clinical changes and recommendations that result from health equity research.
• Another example of BMC's approach to community health is its vaccine access and awareness program during the pandemic for communities that ranked high on the CDC's Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). The program's efforts comprised a multi-lingual, multi-media campaign to address vaccine hesitancy. In partnership with schools, churches, and other community organizations, BMC hosted 47 "pop-up" vaccination events and engaged with teen ambassadors in partnership with the YMCA to raise awareness within the community. At six months into the vaccination program, 70% of patients 18 years and older in BMC primary care had received at least one shot, and 60% were fully vaccinated. The proportions rose to 82% with one dose and 75% fully vaccinated at one year. These efforts reflected BMC's history of building trust with the community and ensuring that care is culturally informed, and that patient and community voices are integral to the decision-making.

2024 Finalists
Two Foster G. McGaw Prize finalists are also recognized for their community health programs and will each receive $10,000. These finalists include:

• Englewood Health in Englewood, N.J., for its health equity and population health efforts for underserved communities to enhance individual and public health, prevent disease, support lifelong wellness, reduce the burden of mental health challenges and substance use disorders, and meet the specific needs of diverse populations. An essential component to all these initiatives is to remove any barriers to vital resource connections to further enable Englewood Health community members to have access to the resources and tools they need to live their healthiest lives. An early step in this process is to identify and address disparities in the social determinants of health. Englewood Health has broadened the scope of its social determinants of health screenings, including all of the lives cared for by the health system and extending out into the communities it serves. To address identified needs, Englewood Health recognizes that the strategic partnerships and relationships it is continuously nurturing with community organizations are central to its effectiveness in creating healthier communities. Englewood Health strategically aligns with partners with direct access to the populations they are seeking to reach; leveraging their connections and infrastructure to bring its health expertise and resources to populations where health disparities have been recognized and gaps in health care and social needs have been identified. One example is The Shirvan Family Live Well Center, a dedicated space that expands access to Englewood's Live Well health education and wellness programs, building on strong community trust to deliver information and resources directly to those in need.

• NewYork-Presbyterian in New York City for its wide-ranging efforts to address health disparities and community health needs. In collaboration with more than 70 community-based organizations (CBOs) and more than 30 local schools, the NewYork-Presbyterian Division of Community and Population Health coordinates community health programs that address the needs and objectives identified in the Community Health Needs Assessment and Community Service Plan. Programs are aligned with local community culture, promote wellness, increase access to care, reduce disparities, and aim to achieve measurable health outcomes. Social determinants of health addressed include educational attainment, health literacy, employment, food insecurity, digital divide, immigrant status, and inter-generational transmission of family violence. Many initiatives have started small and expanded to multiple sites, serving thousands of children and adults. During the pandemic, these programs were on the front line of increasing access to telehealth services, reaching more than 40,000 patients. Many NewYork-Presbyterian programs use patient navigators and community health workers (CHWs), who are representative of communities, populations, and languages served and are trained at the Center for Community Health Navigation at NewYork-Presbyterian. The CHWs are employed by collaborating CBOs and serve as members of the NewYork-Presbyterian healthcare team. This innovative structure creates a strong community network that is culturally proficient and aligned in mission and strategies. NewYork-Presbyterian has one of the widest, deepest, most effective hospital-CBO networks in the nation.

About the Foster G. McGaw Prize
The Foster G. McGaw Prize recognizes health care organizations that are committed to community service through a range of programs that demonstrate a passion and continuous commitment to making communities healthier and more vital. The prize, first awarded in 1986, inspires hospitals, health systems and communities to assess and co-create programs that improve their communities. For more information, visit www.aha.org/fostermcgaw.

About the American Hospital Association
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA advocates on behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinician partners - including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians, 2 million nurses and other caregivers - and the 43,000 health care leaders who belong to our professional membership groups. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides insight and education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the AHA website at www.aha.org.

About the Baxter International Foundation
Every day, Baxter and the Baxter International Foundation strive to make a meaningful difference in the lives of people who depend on our products, and in the communities where our employees live and work. The Foundation helps advance Baxter's mission to save and sustain lives by partnering with organizations around the world to increase access to healthcare for the underserved, develop the next generation of innovators who will lead the way in advancing healthcare and to create a positive, long-lasting impact in communities globally. For more information, please visit Baxter's Corporate Responsibility page.