Beyond the Bedside
Who’s picking up the tab for healthier communities? We are!

Over the past three consecutive fiscal years, Dartmouth Health has invested nearly $885 million to address community needs. As the state’s largest private employer, we have an enormous responsibility to the people of this entire region. Our designation as an anchor institution, a formal marker by the Healthcare Anchor Network, means that we invest in local and regional population health initiatives designed to keep communities thriving. We enthusiastically embrace this opportunity. Our mission is to support economic, human, and intellectual resources to improve the long-term health and social welfare of the Granite State and the Green Mountain State. This institutional stewardship is reflected in the many ways in which Dartmouth Health continues to make a positive impact beyond the walls of our hospitals and clinics.

Giving Back

Volunteers play an important role in delivering the compassionate, patient-centered care for which Dartmouth Health is known. Our 280 active volunteers are a diverse group with wide-ranging personal and professional backgrounds, interests, and talents. What they all have in common is the desire to give back to their communities through making the healthcare journey a little easier for our patients and families and supporting our care teams. Last year, they donated more than 20,000 hours of their time in support of our mission. In addition, more than $100,000 in grants were awarded to DHMC and DHC departments from the proceeds from the Gift Shop at DHMC. These grants are awarded for equipment or supplies that enhance patient care, improve community health, or complement the mission of the department or program.

Directing Dollars Toward Community Health

Thanks to the recent funding secured by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Dartmouth Health is the recipient of $3,092,000 from over $103 million awarded across New Hampshire from congressionally directed funding. Here’s how those dollars will be directed for the benefit of staff and patients:

• $1,292,000 to the department of psychiatry to fund a licensed independent clinical social worker training program
• $750,000 to Cheshire Medical Center to purchase robotic technology for the physical therapy program
• $650,000 to Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics Nashua to expand the clinic’s diabetes care program
• $400,000 to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center to fund a childcare workforce program through the Early Care & Education Association of the Upper Valley

Rural Reach

With 47% of New Hampshire’s population living in rural communities, Dartmouth Health has made an important commitment to outreach. Through our Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity, our focus is to give everyone a fair shot at a healthy life. In partnership with our communities, we’re fostering programs to promote health. We advocate for social services, safe neighborhoods, reliable transportation, healthy foods, working wages that support basic needs, and community policies that are fair to all people. For more information about what we are doing to enhance rural outreach, visit the Center for Advancing Rural Heath Equity Projects page.

Affordable Housing Solutions

Your health is the product of many factors in your life, not just the services you receive in a hospital or clinic. By working with community partners to improve access to safe and affordable housing, we can optimize personal and community health. This is why Dartmouth Health chose to become the largest in-state investor in the Community Loan Fund for more affordable homeownership. This fund provides financing and education to help homeowners in manufactured-home communities purchase and run their parks as resident-owner communities (ROCs). It also offers fair, 30-year, fixed-rate manufactured-home mortgages to low-income homebuyers; and lends to developers of affordable multi-family rentals. By adding $2 million to the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, and bringing our total investment to $5 million, we’re ensuring safer and more affordable housing for those who need it.

Hiring Help

By valuing and growing our community-based workforces, we’re stabilizing local and regional economies. Through our mobile integrated health team in the City of Lebanon, NH, we’ve implemented new training programs for peer support in the community college system and ongoing support for community health workers. In 2023, as part of an Impact Workforce Commitment, we pledged to hire at least 10% of new employees from economically disadvantaged areas to create economic opportunity. As one of seventeen health systems across the country to embrace this recruitment initiative, we aim to improve societal health and well-being. From workforce readiness to career expos and more, Dartmouth Health is actively engaged in workforce solutions aimed at addressing inequities and shortages throughout our system.

Empowering Patients

Through our increased focus on health literacy, we’ve developed a Patient Education and Advisory Committee. This initiative has resulted in the creation of printed and digital patient education materials designed to better enable patients to find, understand, and access their care teams and better manage their personal health concerns.

Feed The Need

With our community partners, we’re implementing multiple programs to mitigate food insecurity. By building a network of food support throughout the Dartmouth Health system, we’re making proper nutrition accessible to our patients and their families.

Data-Driven Diagnostics

Dartmouth Health recently implemented a data collection system aimed at identifying healthcare disparities. By collecting patient reported information on race, ethnicity, language preference, sexual orientation, gender identity, food insecurity, social isolation, financial insecurity, and much more–we now have data to more accurately inform and address health equity in New England.