Health and wellbeing of our community
At Penn Medicine, our mission to improve the health and wellbeing of others extends far beyond serving those who come to our hospitals and clinics for care. Our long-term goal is to improve the health and wellbeing of our community.
To help accomplish that goal, we have expanded our quality measurement initiatives to include population-level data from our local communities.
Philadelphia is a vibrant city with connected communities. Penn Medicine is committed to building on that strength while simultaneously helping to address the challenges our communities face.
Passionate resolve to improve health
The evidence is clear that social factors have a big impact on people’s health. For example, residents of communities with high rates of poverty typically have lower life expectancies.
Philadelphia, among the poorest big cities in the United States follows this trend. Life expectancy varies by 15 years from one zip code to another.
These trends are rooted in systemic racism and unequal concentrations of wealth, resulting in major health disparities across communities.
At Penn Medicine we believe all our patients deserve equal access to high-quality care and a long healthy life.
We recognize that unless we address the underlying inequities, we won't be able to achieve this goal. Our passionate team of physicians, researchers, and staff is committed to addressing these inequities to help drive health and wellbeing for all.
Primary care matters
Our work has revealed that patients who are actively followed in primary care have better control of chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure (hypertension).
In line with our Community Health Implementation Plan (PDF - 31.4 MB), Penn Medicine is committed to improving access to primary care in our communities.
The path forward, together
We are using a data-driven approach to identify the greatest challenges facing our communities and coordinate actionable plans to address them.
We are currently focusing on the following topics since we know they are key drivers of health: