Through its robust community benefits commitment, Providence and its community partners met the needs last year of these Southern Californians and tens of thousands more in need of health care, mental health services, food, pathways to housing and other services.

“A hallmark of Providence is its commitment to reaching into our communities to address social determinants of health – homelessness, poverty, food insecurity, education and wellness care,” said Laureen Driscoll, chief executive of Providence South, serving California. “We often work with partners who share our mission of outreach to the poor and vulnerable, the legacy of our founding orders of religious Sisters.”

This week, Providence, based in Renton, Wash., published its 2022 Annual Report to our Communities, detailing system-wide community benefits and spotlighting local outreach. As a not-for-profit health care organization, Providence community health investments include care for the poor and vulnerable, including free and discounted care for the uninsured and underinsured and covering unpaid costs of Medi-Cal and other government programs.

To expand its reach and expertise, Providence frequently works in partnership with community organizations that share its mission. In Southern California, Providence provided a total of $564 million in direct community outreach, charity care, grants to safety net providers and other services. Here is the breakdown:

-$47 million, community heath improvement and strategic partnerships

-$10 million, health professions education and research

-$13 million, subsidized health care services

-$37 million, free and discounted care for uninsured and underinsured

-$457 million, to cover unpaid costs of Medi-Cal and other means-tested government programs

Highlighted in the report are innovative programs across the Providence Southern California region’s three service areas, Los Angeles County, Orange County and the High Desert area of San Bernardino County.

Well-paying jobs are scarce in some High Desert areas served by Providence St. Mary Medical Center and college is out of reach for many young people. At the same time, the hospital faces serious staff shortages.

Investing in the community while creating a career pipeline to ensure continued quality care, Providence developed Pathway to Health Care Careers to encourage high school students to consider health care careers. With college out of reach for many students, Providence identified numerous hospital jobs with good pay and benefits that don’t require bachelor’s degrees. Those fields include nurse assistants, emergency department technicians, security and warehouse work.

“We want to prevent the talent drain the High Desert is seeing,” said Erica Phillips, Providence community health investment manager in the High Desert. “There’s not a lot of higher education that allows individuals to grow and stay here.”

In the L.A. Area, navigators for those experiencing homelessness work in Providence emergency departments to guide these patients to resources, including partnering nonprofits that provide pathways to housing.

“Homelessness is a growing problem, but in working with Hope the Mission we’re able to place our patients on the road to temporary housing,” said Roland Hinds, a community health worker in the San Fernando Valley.

The Orange County team leads a collaborative committed to addressing inequities for some of our communities of color struggling to make ends meet, particularly an impoverished pocket in a high-end suburb.

“When people are spending that much on housing, there’s just not much left. It creates a severe burden,” said Christy Cornwall, director of Providence community health investment in Orange

County. “That has serious impacts on other areas of your life, your health care and other basic needs.”