ProMedica Honored with Innovator Award from Healthcare Innovation

TOLEDO, Ohio, March 14, 2023 – ProMedica is pleased to announce it is being recognized as a winner of the Innovator Award from Healthcare Innovation based on work aimed at addressing the social determinants of health.

The Innovator Awards Program was designed fifteen years ago to showcase a wide range of innovations in hospitals, medical groups, health systems, and beyond, including public health departments, health information exchanges, and health plans. Healthcare Innovation whose mission is to inform and enlighten senior leaders of health care organizations nationwide around policy, strategic, operational, and technological issues, is dedicated to showcasing all forms of innovation.

"What the leaders at the Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica Health System are doing, around screening for and addressing social determinants of health issues in their community, and advancing their connections with community-based organizations, is tremendously exciting,” said Healthcare Innovation Editor-in-Chief Mark Hagland. “Huge congratulations to ProMedica’s leaders for doing what so many leaders have talked about and aspired to—creating a program that is integrated into clinician workflow and supports early intervention and enhanced connections with community-based organizations."

ProMedica began treating hunger as a health issue in 2009. The health system is now recognized as a national leader in addressing the social determinants of health to redefine health care and create a new model that invests in public health, invites community partnerships, and implements interventions that affect the many aspects of individual and community health.

“We are honored to be recognized with an innovator award for our efforts to address the non-clinical factors affecting health outcomes,” said Kate Sommerfeld, President of Social Determinants and Vice President of Community Relations at ProMedica. “ProMedica staff throughout all parts of the system work diligently every day to improve health through exceptional clinical care and a holistic approach to wellbeing that includes the conditions in which people live, work and play.”

ProMedica’s commitment to integrating social determinant factors with clinical care to create a complete, holistic approach to health and well-being social hinges on collecting and analyzing clinical and demographic data to better design interventions and measure impact. To do this, ProMedica leaders developed a robust screening tool that has enabled more than 150,000 screenings each year and over three million since its origin. Today, the tool is a model for other health care systems, and its replicable, scalable programs are being implemented in other communities.

ProMedica is a mission-based, not-for-profit health and well-being organization headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. The organization offers acute and ambulatory care, an insurance company with a dental plan, and post-acute and academic business lines. The organization has 12 hospitals, 2,500+ physicians and advanced practice providers with privileges, 1,000+ health care providers employed by ProMedica Physicians, a health plan, and assisted living facilities, skilled nursing centers, memory care communities, outpatient rehabilitation clinics, and hospice, home health and palliative care agencies. Driven by its Mission to improve health and well-being, ProMedica has been nationally recognized for its advocacy programs and efforts to address social determinants of health. For more information about ProMedica, please visit promedica.org/aboutus.

Healthcare Innovation publishes a print magazine six times a year, and its editors post fresh content to its website, at www.hcinnovationgroup.com, every weekday. More than 300,000 leaders of patient care organizations and healthcare organizations nationwide rely on the information and insights they find in the news reports, feature articles, and interviews with key U.S. healthcare system leaders.