COMMUNITY CASE STUDY article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1614507
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Models for Community Health: Integrative Approaches to Public Health and WellnessView all 6 articles
Development of Strategies to Improve Care for All in the Communities Served by a Mid-size Nonprofit Health System in the United States
Provisionally accepted
- WellSpan Health, York, United States
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WellSpan Health is a nonprofit integrated healthcare system serving twelve counties in south-central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland, a region marked by wide disparities in the demographic, social, and economic conditions of its people. Consequently, it is also marked by wide disparities in health status and health outcomes, including life expectancy. Beginning in the mid-1990s, WellSpan's community health needs assessments identified numerous potential drivers of health disparities, and in recent years the hospital system has conducted increasingly sophisticated community health improvement plans to address disparities in ways compatible with the hospital system's resources, capabilities, mission, and priorities. Because there is limited published information about how nonprofit health systems are implementing and evaluating community health improvement plans, we have documented key aspects of WellSpan's progress including guiding principles and strategies, how pilot projects were identified and conducted, how community partnerships were developed and leveraged, and how data sources were used to guide decisions. WellSpan's efforts have culminated in the recent adoption of a 30-year plan to improve overall life expectancy and quality of life and reduce disparities in these outcomes in the region served. The purpose of this paper is to share experiences and lessons learned during the multi-year effort leading to the development of this 30-year plan.
Keywords: Quality Improvement, Community Health Services, Life Expectancy, Health Disparities, community health improvement plan, social drivers of health
Received: 19 Apr 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cichetti, Voight, Jansen and Seim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jodi R Cichetti, WellSpan Health, York, United States
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