David Zuckerman, the Democracy Collaborative's Healthcare Engagement Manager, speaks with Catholic Health World about how and why hospitals and health systems are devising anchor institution strategies to strengthen local economies.
In the report Hospitals Building Healthier Communities: Embracing the Anchor Mission, lead author David Zuckerman explains that a mid-20th century economic model centered on core corporate employers in a community providing reliable blue-collar jobs is increasingly hard to find in the U.S. Instead, nonprofit or public employers such as hospitals and universities often are among a community's most resilient anchor institutions. These organizations, once established, rarely move from a region and remain tied to their communities due to "their mission, invested capital and customer relationships," he writes in the 2013 report, released by The Democracy Collaborative... Read full article.