Community Health at PeaceHealth
At PeaceHealth, we recognize that the journey to health and well-being is constant. Driven by our belief that good health, prevention and community wellbeing is a fundamental right, we work with communities to provide Hope, Care, Housing and Nourishment.
Our Community Impact
As a leader in our communities, PeaceHealth is focused not just on individual patient outcomes but also on maximizing community health benefits and ensuring access to high-quality, affordable care.
We are proud of our healing Mission and are committed to giving back to the communities we serve. As a mission-driven non-profit health system, we are required by law to reinvest our profits into our communities by enhancing the healthcare services we provide or supporting community health initiatives. Learn more about PeaceHealth’s Financial Stewardship.
Through community partners, PeaceHealth makes direct investments that improve wellness, access, quality and health justice.
- Nine cents of every dollar PeaceHealth spends is for community benefit. In the fiscal year 2021, our community benefit was nearly three times what we would have paid in forgone taxes.
- Since 2018, PeaceHealth has invested $1.34B in our communities.
- $69M was reinvested in community health improvement projects.
Community health needs define our priorities for investments with partners. Every two years, each PeaceHealth location conducts a Community Health Needs Assessment and works with community-based partners to address critical social determinants of health. Read more about our Focus Areas below.
PeaceHealth is committed to ensuring our patients get the care they need, whether or not they can pay. Charity care, or financial assistance, is a large portion of our annual community benefit. Patients may qualify for free or discounted care based on family size and income, even if they have health insurance.
- Since 2018, PeaceHealth has provided $258M in charity care and more than $1B in unreimbursed care for thousands of Medicaid recipients.
Patients may apply for financial assistance at any point in their relationship with PeaceHealth — before receiving care, on-site, after returning home, and at any time in billing or collections. Immediately after a financial assistance application is recorded, further billing or collections activity is paused, even if it is incomplete.
Visit our Financial Assistance website for more information or an application.
Our Focus Areas
Addressing Food Insecurities
Enhance family and child wellbeing to address food insecurities and to nourish our communities.
Access to healthy affordable food is a critical issue affecting children and families across our communities. Our Mission and Core values call on us to nourish the health of our communities, not just because we believe everyone should have access to nutritious food, but also because food insecurity can lead to a lifetime of consequences. There is a clear connection between food insecurity and high levels of stress, poor nutrition and chronic diet-related diseases, like obesity and diabetes.
Our PeaceHealth initiatives include:
- Expand food pantry and food access programs across all locations
- Promote equitable access to food resources
- Reduce food insecurity in our communities.
- Grow investments in Health Coach programming to scale community health work and extend impact on targeted populations in need
Increasing Housing Access
Improve access to supportive housing as good health is homeward bound.
Lack of affordable housing and instability are major challenges across many of the communities Housing challenges often occur alongside poverty and food insecurity, together imperiling the well-being of affected households and the community as a whole. We directly invest in housing to advance our communities forward, including the development of housing that is supportive, affordable, respite specific, service-enriched, homeless prevention focused. We pride ourselves on making sure that all our housing investments integrate social services agencies and nonprofit organizations to address community wellness and housing instability.
Our PeaceHealth initiatives include:
- Advance system wide investments in respite beds
- Scale supportive housing models in partnership with local communities
- Increase knowledge and engagement in workforce housing efforts and partnerships
- Identify and maximize land and resource donations and systemic partnerships
Advancing Community Care
Increase knowledge, access and engagement with community caregivers bridging the gap between hospital and home.
The provision of preventative, holistic healthcare demands that we go beyond the walls of our hospitals and deeper into our communities to engage patients in the context of their everyday lives and address the social, economic and behavioral factors that impact their health. This can be especially true when patients leave our direct care and return home and must manage their own health. Our overall goal is to create supportive environments where patients develop the skills and supportive community relationships needed to manage their health to prevent repeat emergency department or urgent care visits.
Our PeaceHealth initiatives include:
- Increase access to Community Caregivers including Community Health Workers
- Invest and support efforts to build upon Medicaid transformation Initiatives
- Scale programming for mobile healthcare options
- Subsidize and support prevention, education and awareness programs that promote safety and decrease readmittance rates
Expanding Care Options
Expand education and access to treatment and prevention of dependency.
In service to our Mission, PeaceHealth is working in collaboration with community partners to halt the opioid epidemic and bring healing to patients and families suffering from substance use disorder and chronic pain. The opioid epidemic impacts every segment of our society—young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural. In addition to targeting opioid and substance use dependency, our community health team targets overall behavioral health strategies to improving community wellness and health justice.
Our PeaceHealth initiatives include:
- Increase availability and access to overdose prevention kits and prevention programming
- Integrate and advance trauma informed care to all hospitals and clinics and community programming.
- Increase community partnerships for care transitions to treatment programs
- Subsidize health education materials in schools and community organizations.
Community Health Needs Assessment
Our Community Health Needs Assessments guide our investments. Conducted every three years in partnership with local communities, these tools assist us in identifying and addressing community needs and gaps in resources. This allows PeaceHealth to maximize our impact and target our investments where they will make the most lasting change.
Community Health Improvement Plans
Our vision at PeaceHealth is that our communities and everyone within them lives their best lives. This means targeting efforts to aid in health justice, equity, access, care and community impact. We are committed to strong community built plans that measure progress and evaluate our impact towards those results.
Healthy You
PeaceHealth’s Healthy You program provides classes, tools and tips to help and inspire you on your health journey.
15th Night: A caring community response for unhoused teens
PeaceHealth helps innovative Eugene-based nonprofit expand to Cottage Grove and create a model to take the program to more communities
House calls for unhoused patients
Serving people where they live
Eugene YMCA forms health industry partnership with PeaceHealth to ensure new Y increases impact on community's health
The partnership supports the new Y and names the Y's Wellness Center after PeaceHealth