Healthy Hospitals Mean Healthier Communities

BY BRIAN FRAZEE

DELAWARE’S HEALTHCARE LANDSCAPE is evolving rapidly as we are the fifth-oldest and sixth fastest-growing state in the country. A quality, equitable, and robust healthcare infrastructure is needed to care for our uniquely aging and growing population.

To maintain its competitiveness for people who want to live, work, raise a family, or retire in Delaware, hospitals and other healthcare organizations need resources and support. This is essential to strengthen the workforce, ensure access to quality, affordable care, and advance health equity.

Delaware hospitals provide nearly $1 billion in community benefits every year. They invest in everything from charity care for Delawareans unable to pay for care, to providing healthcare to children at school-based health centers, and increasing access to food and housing for underserved Delawareans. These efforts are critically important to achieving our vision of a healthier population, which also helps prevent more costly care in the long run.

Rising healthcare costs continue to be a concern among Delawareans, policymakers, and the business community. These rising costs, primarily driven by inflation, pharmaceutical costs, workforce shortages, and other factors outside of hospital control, also threaten the competitiveness of our state. We need bold, comprehensive and collaborative solutions from all healthcare stakeholders that will help ensure more affordable healthcare while preserving access and quality. This includes every Delaware hospital’s continued support of value-based care arrangements as well as primary care and community benefit investments that help keep people healthy.

Solutions that target hospital costs without addressing the rest of the healthcare continuum will put our shared vision of a robust healthcare system in jeopardy. It means fewer community benefit investments that the state is unable to provide, less expansion of hospital infrastructure to accommodate a growing and aging population, and decreased ability to invest in the latest lifesaving healthcare technology. It would ultimately threaten our current U.S. News & World Report ranking of number two in the country for hospital quality.

As Delaware’s largest private-sector employer, hospitals directly provide over 25,000 jobs, support more than 48,000 jobs, and contribute $8 billion in economic output across the state. Hospitals are anchor institutions in their communities, supporting local economies while being open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to care for anyone who walks through their doors. They are an economic engine that contributes to Delaware’s reputation as a business-friendly state.

We can improve healthcare by working collaboratively with the new administration, General Assembly, all healthcare stakeholders, and the business community on innovative ways to reduce healthcare costs while maintaining and enhancing our competitiveness as a state with quality healthcare for all Delawareans.

Brian Frazee is president and CEO of the Delaware Healthcare Association.