Nationwide Children’s Hospital aims to meet needs of adults

For nearly two decades, Nationwide Children’s Hospital has been working to tackle a variety of community needs in Columbus, Ohio.

Now, the pediatric health system is offering a number of ambitious programs to help those in financial need. Nationwide is running programs to help people get housing, training for careers and tax preparation.

Nick Jones, vice president of community wellness at Nationwide Children’s, says that he has heard questions about the system’s expansive programs.

“Folks say, ‘Well, you know, you're a children's hospital, but it seems like a lot of the programs focus on the adults,’” Jones says. “And yeah, they do.”

“We need the adults to have that stability so that they can provide the best support and care for their kids,” he explains. “And so I think that's why we're continuing to look at ways to help put more money in folks' pockets, to help get them better jobs, to maybe get on an employer's insurance, where they can be more self-sustaining themselves.”

In a conversation with Chief Healthcare Executive®, Jones talks about the system’s neighborhood programs and shares insights for other hospitals looking to address needs in their communities.

Ensuring that kids are healthy

Nationwide Children’s established its “Healthy Neighborhoods, Healthy Families” program in 2008. The system sought to address affordable housing, economic development, education, wellness and community enrichment. The programs were aimed at the south side of Columbus and the city’s Linden neighborhood.

Columbus has seen significant growth in recent years. The city’s population has surpassed 930,000, adding more than 150,000 residents since 2010, according to Census data.

Even as the city is growing, Jones says that some are being left behind.

While some residents are thriving, he says, “There's the other side of folks who aren't, who might feel like they're being left out or pushed out because of this type of economic growth. And so that's where our work certainly comes in to mitigate the effects of that and figure out how they can be a part of that and certainly realize the benefits from the type of growth that's happening in Columbus.”

Nationwide Children’s has a team of 80 people working in various community programs. Much of the system’s motivation to tackle social drivers of health stems from its accountable care organization, known as Partners for Kids. The system assumes financial risk for more than 400,000 kids.

“The incentive is to ensure that kids are healthy and that they're going back and living in healthy homes and healthy communities, good schools, parents have access to good jobs, to ensure that they're getting the right care,” Jones says.

Jones says private philanthropy and corporate support have been critical, and he hailed partnerships with local governments.

“The city and the county have been great partners for us, especially on the housing side, to matching our capital financing with grant and bond dollars that they're contributing to the work,” Jones says.

But he says the programs have been built gradually.

“We did not do this all at once in 2008,” Jones says. “This has been building over almost 20 years.”

“It certainly takes a lot of work to build up that type of support and partnership, but because of those various partners and diverse mix of partners, we've been able to to build up a pretty sustainable funding model,” he says.

Housing, jobs and tax prep

Nationwide Children’s is offering a number of programs to help people with housing needs.

“We're certainly facing a housing crunch, and that starts really with the affordability,” he says.

The health system offers grants to homeowners for home repairs, but Nationwide Children’s also will rehabilitate properties and offer them below market value for families with lower incomes.

In a newer effort, Natinowide is also taking on a role in developing multifamily housing. “We're starting to dip our toe in that and really figure out how to make that work,” he says, adding, “That's going to be a real big step for us over the next five years to make that transition.”

Nationwide Children’s has also been helping residents with tax preparation, and the system has significantly expanded that program. Over the past year, Nationwide prepared over 8,000 tax returns at no charge.

“They're getting 100% of their return and credit back in their pocket,” Jones says.

Seasonal staff and some volunteers work in Nationwide Children’s primary care locations and other spaces in the community to do free tax preparation services.

Jones says a major goal is to help ensure people aren’t missing out on earned income tax credits and child tax credits.

“The whole importance of this program is to maximize utilization of the Earned Income Tax Credit, because 20% of families who are eligible for that do not utilize it,” Jones says. “And so we want to make sure that they're taking care of that benefit and, obviously, the health benefits that are provided by that return.”

Jones says the tax preparation program can help lift people out of poverty, with some families who hadn’t collected earned income tax credits eventually taking home thousands of dollars. For people with lower incomes, that’s life-changing.

The tax preparation program has generated “more than $15 million back into folks' pockets to help support them in their goals,” Jones says.

Nationwide Children’s is also operating workforce development programs that are designed to boost economic development. The system’s “Boost” program works with adults interested in exploring careers at the hospital or with other employers.

Now, over 2,000 employees that live in the neighborhoods Nationwide has been targeting are working in the hospital. Some begin in entry-level jobs but others are moving into degree programs and clinical roles.

The pediatric system also runs a youth employment program every summer. The program employs over 100 young people at the children’s hospital in jobs across 70 departments.

Building a sustainable model

In building its community programs, Jones stresses the importance of engaging communities and earning their trust.

“If you don't have those in the community and don't align yourselves with trusted voices in the community, both at the individual and organizational level, it's really going to be hard to build a sustainable model for the work,” Jones says.

He points to the work with a Columbus organization called Community Development for All People, which serves residents in the city’s South Side.

Health systems looking to address the social drivers of health need to be willing to listen to community partners to suggest areas of need and what can be done differently.

“I think that trust and community engagement, strong partnership piece is key,” Jones says.

With significant life expectancy gaps in affluent communities and neighborhoods of residents with lower incomes, Jones says the health system feels a duty to use its resources to help bring about better outcomes and help people live healthier lives.

“We're still a children's hospital and at the end of the day, that's still our core mission,” Jones says. “But all of this other stuff that we know goes into health outcomes is important, and for us to really help folks live longer and obviously reduce that life expectancy gap is important to us.”