Reporting of global health activities among U.S. nonprofit hospitals: Assessing the benefit to global communities

Background

Many U.S. nonprofit hospitals engage in global health activities (e.g., humanitarian relief), yet little is known about the extent to which these activities are measured or reported. Given that nonprofit hospitals are increasingly under pressure to justify their tax-exempt status from the government, global health activities represent one domain of nonprofit hospitals' commitments to underserved populations.

Purpose

To systematically review nonprofit hospitals' community benefit reports for evidence of global health activities, and to create a typology of these activities.

Methods

We randomly select 100 nonprofit hospitals in the United States. (Our sampling frame comprises the 2,000-plus nonprofit hospitals in the American Hospital Directory.) We analyze these hospitals' community benefit reports in terms of their coverage of global health activities as well as the usefulness of this information in assessing each hospital's impact on global health.

Results

We report on the breadth and depth of reporting on global health activities for each hospital, and in the aggregate for the study sample. We array these activities by type (e.g., medical education/training, direct provision of health services). We also document notable global health reporting practices in the sample. Finally, we provide recommendations for improving measurement and reporting of global health activities among nonprofit hospitals.

Conclusion

As nonprofit hospitals increasingly engage in global health work, improving the metrics related to these activities may help quantify and demonstrate the value of such work to policymakers, hospital leadership, and other key stakeholders.