How Nonprofit Academic Health Systems and Teaching Hospitals Provide Far-Reaching Contributions to Community Health

It is only in academic medicine that the missions of education, medical research, patient care, and community collaboration (PDF) coalesce for the benefit of patients and communities. Simply put, the work of nonprofit academic health systems and teaching hospitals improves and increases access to care.

Academic health systems and teaching hospitals devote substantial resources to provide not only charity care but also far-reaching community benefits. Supporting the medical research and education missions — without which our nation’s health care system would quickly decline — is a vital part of the IRS-defined “community benefit” (PDF) that nonprofit teaching hospitals provide, making an impact far beyond just charity care.

Nonprofit academic health systems and teaching hospitals also deliver critical services — such as psychiatric care and those provided at Level I trauma centers and burn units — that for-profit hospitals and other health systems largely avoid. AAMC-member teaching health systems and hospitals serve a disproportionate share of vulnerable patients in their hospital outpatient departments. These settings and the health care providers who practice there have the clinical resources, expertise, and experience necessary to care for sicker, costlier, and higher-cost patients compared with nonteaching hospitals. Data show that patient mortality is lower at teaching hospitals (PDF) as well.

Academic health systems and teaching hospitals also work to address social determinants of health, including increasing access to healthier food and partnerships to address transportation and housing needs for patients.