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Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) 2021 Community Benefits Report details the many ways hospitals and health systems in Wisconsin care for their neighbors over and above patient care, even in the face of a global pandemic.
WHA’s Community Benefits Report tabulates financial contributions Wisconsin hospitals and health systems make to their communities in the form of charity care, subsidized health services, community health improvement services and other expenditures. These investments by Wisconsin hospitals in their communities totaled nearly $1.9 billion in 2020.
The report also documents how Wisconsin hospitals and health systems add vitality to their communities by educating patients and their caregivers on health-related topics, raising awareness of injury- and disease-prevention practices and helping to ensure the nutritional needs of disadvantaged children and families are met.
“The challenges COVID-19 has caused throughout the state’s entire health care system over the past 20 months have only motivated hospitals and health systems across Wisconsin to reaffirm their commitments to the communities they serve in innumerable ways, as the 2021 Community Benefits Report attests,” said Wisconsin Hospital Association President and CEO Eric Borgerding.
Borgerding continued, “In response to the pandemic, Wisconsin hospitals have gone well beyond their walls to take up basic government and public health tasks, like community virus testing and vaccine administration. They are also having to fill growing gaps in non-hospital care, such as becoming de-facto nursing homes for the hundreds of dischargeable patients nursing home are not accepting. They do all this and much more, while continuing to respond to community emergencies, treat and heal serious disease, attend to accident victims and, of course, welcome new babies into the world.
Included in WHA 2021 Community Benefits Report are individual hospital stories related to charity care, COVID-19 efforts, health equity and hospital-supported initiatives. The entire report as well as an interactive map featuring community benefit stories organized by region and hospital name is available online at
www.wha.org/community-benefits.