Mission, Vision, and Capacity of Place-Based Safety Net Hospitals: Leveraging the Power of Anchors to Strengthen Local Economies and Communities

This article sheds light on the scope and magnitude of community and economic impacts of urban safety net hospitals. It presents a framework for assessing these contributions, and utilizes the proposed framework to analyze the case of MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio. We found that through its 3-faceted functions of clinical care, academics, and research, the hospital employs a large number of workers, purchases substantial amounts of goods and services in the local and regional marketplace, generates new knowledge, invests in human capital, anchors the neighborhood by its land and capital investments, and participates in developing a community vision.