Contribution highlighted in WHA’s 2021 Community Benefits Report
For the Tomahawk Leader
TOMAHAWK – Wisconsin hospitals invested nearly $1.9 billion in their communities via charity care, subsidized health services, community health improvement services and other expenditures, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) 2021 Community Benefits Report.
Among the investments highlighted in the report was Sacred Heart Hospital’s donation of funds to the Tomahawk Farmer’s Market.
“Over the past two decades, local farmers markets have been established in larger and smaller communities across the United States and in Wisconsin,” WHA stated. “As small farms bring their livestock and crops to market, the higher cost of food, which often occurs, is seen as a barrier for struggling families, since the scale of the small farm often cannot compete with crops and livestock raised in an industrial farm setting.”
Sacred Heart Hospital donated funds to the Tomahawk Farmer’s Market to help support the expense of the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) machine fees “as an acknowledgment of the need to make locally-sourced and sustainable foods more affordable,” WHA said.
“Having the EBT machine available at the Farmer’s Market makes accessing fresh food easier for individuals with FoodShare,” said Jane Bentz, WHA community benefit and community health improvement lead. “In addition, the hospital’s donation for the coupons effectively doubles the purchasing power of consumers with low income.”
Next year, the Farmer’s Market will be held on 3rd St. in downtown Tomahawk from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. each Tuesday from June through October. The market, sponsored by Tomahawk Main Street, Inc., will feature pasture pork, fresh eggs, produce, baked goods and herbs, along with local maple syrup and honey.
2021 Community Benefits Report
The 2021 Community Benefits Report “details the many ways hospitals and health systems in Wisconsin care for their neighbors over and above patient care, even in the face of a global pandemic” and “documents how Wisconsin hospitals and health systems add vitality to their communities by educating patients and their caregivers on health-related topics, raising awareness of injury- and disease-prevention practices and helping to ensure the nutritional needs of disadvantaged children and families are met,” a release from WHA said.
“The challenges COVID-19 has caused throughout the state’s entire health care system over the past 20 months have only motivated hospitals and health systems across Wisconsin to reaffirm their commitments to the communities they serve in innumerable ways, as the 2021 Community Benefits Report attests,” said Wisconsin Hospital Association President and CEO Eric Borgerding. “In response to the pandemic, Wisconsin hospitals have gone well beyond their walls to take up basic government and public health tasks, like community virus testing and vaccine administration. They are also having to fill growing gaps in non-hospital care, such as becoming de-facto nursing homes for the hundreds of dischargeable patients nursing home are not accepting. They do all this and much more, while continuing to respond to community emergencies, treat and heal serious disease, attend to accident victims and, of course, welcome new babies into the world.”
Included in WHA 2021 Community Benefits Report are individual hospital stories related to charity care, COVID-19 efforts, health equity and hospital-supported initiatives.
The entire report, as well as an interactive map featuring community benefit stories organized by region and hospital name, is available online at www.wha.org/community-benefits.