Community Benefit Reporting

Our Commitment to the Community  

ECHN dedicates millions of dollars and thousands of staff hours to activities that enhance the overall health and wellness of our communities with special focus on the unmet needs of financially disadvantaged and underserved populations.
 

Our community benefit efforts include:

•Charity Care: Free or discounted health services provided to persons who cannot afford to pay.

•Community Health Improvement Services: Health education lectures, free screenings, support groups and other outreach programs.

•Health Professional Education: A clinical setting for undergraduate training and internships with doctors, nurses and other health professionals.

•Cash and In-Kind Donations: Monetary support, free use of hospital space, free medical care, equipment donations to numerous not-for-profit community organizations.

•Community Building Activities: Collaborative partnerships with community groups, advocacy on behalf of access to health care, and workforce development. 

2011

• Over $10,000,000 dedicated to caring for over 59,000 people through ECHN’s charity care, Medicaid and other indigent care programs.
• Health education lectures, workshops and other initiatives served more than 135,000 community members.
• 1,855 individuals received free clinical services including mammograms, pap tests, skin and prostate cancer screenings, stroke risk assessments, body composition, blood pressure and other health screenings/assessments.
• To increase access and quality of care to underserved populations within the community, ECHN sponsored a telephone service that referred more than 200 Medicaid and uninsured individuals to local healthcare professionals.
• Partnering with more than 15 local educational institutions, ECHN dedicated more than $1.6 million to providing a clinical setting for nearly 450 students including physicians, nurses, radiologic technicians, respiratory technicians and physical therapists.
• Free meeting space was provided to more than 30 not-for-profit organizations and community groups whose primary purpose is to improve health and wellness in the local community.

Recently ECHN conducted a comprehensive Community Health Needs Assessment of the 19 towns it serves east of the river. ECHN’s goal was to identify the areas’ current health care needs. To do this, publicly available data from the U.S. Census Bureau, local and state health departments, and many other community agencies were examined and over 1,800 randomly-selected households were surveyed.

“The knowledge gained by conducting this survey is invaluable,” says Dennis McConville, ECHN’s Senior Vice President of Planning, Marketing & Communications. “Identifying the key health issues facing our community neighbors will enable us to evaluate the programs that we currently offer and develop programs that address the specific needs.”
 

For more information on ECHN's community benefit efforts, please call 860.647.6456 or email jtross@echn.org.