Mission and Vision

The Mission of Signature Healthcare is to be the leading community based healthcare delivery system in Southeastern Massachusetts providing the full range of primary care, specialty care, hospital care and related ancillary services on a coordinated basis. Signature Healthcare physicians and Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital strive to be recognized as the "providers of choice" by staff, patients, and the community. Signature Healthcare will operate within the following principles:

• Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital and its affiliated physicians will deliver care in an integrated and coordinated manner and will be known for its excellence--both from a human and medical perspective.

• Signature Healthcare is dedicated to providing equitable access to high-quality healthcare. We recognize the diversity of our patients and the community we serve, including their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation and ability. We commit to respecting their social, cultural, linguistic and other individual needs.
• Signature Healthcare will deliver medically necessary services to all in need regardless of status or ability to pay.
• Signature Healthcare is committed to exceeding recognized external standards and benchmarks related to high quality of care, cost-effectiveness and patient satisfaction and making its results publicly available to organizations actively working towards improving quality and safety of health care.
• Signature Healthcare will take an active leadership role in improving the health care needs of Southeastern Massachusetts: through a community partnership and collaboration with other services providers and community members to offer a broad range of preventive health education, health services, and other activities.
• Signature Healthcare will develop new services/programs and participate in alternative delivery/regional healthcare systems to respond to the community need and enhance access to health care.
• Signature Healthcare will participate in the education of new health care professionals for the purpose of enhancing the system’s access to health care expertise and assuring the most up-to-date approaches for providing health care.
• Signature Healthcare’s controlled affiliates will be equitable and inclusive employers that value and recognize excellence in their employees.
• Signature Healthcare will ethically manage its financial matters to make it cost effective and fiscally sound.
• Signature Healthcare will commit to an electronic medical record environment aimed at (i) eliminating medical errors by making available more accurate and timely information to providers, (ii) enhancing physician productivity and job satisfaction, and (iii) responding to consumer requests for electronic communication.

To Provide Safe, Quality Care with Compassion…That’s our Signature

Signature Healthcare Corporation (SHC) is dedicated to the pursuit of systemic equity for our patients and their families, for our team members, and for the community in which we are situated. We recognize that an equitable and inclusive healthcare system is one that affords everyone the unencumbered opportunity to achieve their highest health and full potential as individuals. We define diversity to encompass aspects such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, religion, mental and physical ability, nation of origin, citizenship status, or any other personal aspect that might place someone within a marginalized community.

We define inclusion as the actions taken to understand, embrace, and leverage the unique identities and perspectives of all individuals so that all feel welcomed, valued, and supported. As such, we are committed to the imperative for diversity and inclusion by identifying and examining areas of disparity, discerning root causes, and working to design and implement targeted interventions to increase equitable outcomes for patients, employees, and families.

Executive Summary

Signature Healthcare (SHC) has embraced nationally recognized definitions of health equity in its effort to inform its definition. Definitions offered by the following organizations resonate and have informed SHC’s approach to achieving health equity:

• Centers for Disease Control: “Health equity is the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health. Achieving this requires ongoing societal efforts to a) Address historical and contemporary injustices; b) Overcome economic, social, and other obstacles to health and health care; and c) Eliminate preventable health disparities.”
• MassHealth: “Health Equity is the opportunity for everyone to attain their full health potential, with no one disadvantaged from achieving this potential due to socioeconomic status or socially assigned circumstance.”
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: “Health equity means everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health, such as poverty and discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness.”

In alignment with SHC’s unwavering mission and visionary commitment to providing "safe, quality care with compassion...that's our signature," SHC has embarked on a journey towards achieving health equity. At the core of our mission and as we set forth on this path, SHC acknowledges health equity as both a moral imperative and a fundamental principle of our mission. Health equity means that every individual in our community, regardless of their background, race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability status, has an opportunity to attain their highest level of health. It is a commitment to ensuring that healthcare disparities are eradicated, and everyone has equal access to the care they need.

Much of the work that SHC is doing in the health equity realm, including developing its Strategic Plan, is tied to payor Health Quality and Equity Incentive goals. These serve as an anchoring point for SHC’s health equity work, though SHC has and will continue to undertake other organizational efforts to advance health equity. The overall process of developing the Health Equity Strategic Plan began with SHC’s development of its Population and Community Needs Assessment, which allowed SHC to develop an understanding of both population demographics and community needs through a combination of quantitative data analysis and qualitative feedback from key stakeholders (e.g., insurance enrollees and their families; community leaders of local nonprofit, civic, or faith groups; providers and frontline staff).

SHC has developed the following coordinated set of strategic goals to implement across the organization which will advance the delivery of equitable care to all patients over the next four (4) years:

1. SHC will increase the collection of Race, Ethnicity, Spoken and Written Language, Disability, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity data to 90% completeness.
2. SHC will enhance access to culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare services for patients with limited English proficiency.
3. SHC will seek to identify racial and ethnic disparities for chronic conditions, with a primary focus on hypertension, and design interventions to implement to reduce them by 2027.

SHC prioritized collecting input from stakeholders and seeks input on an ongoing basis from its Health Equity Committee, PFAC/patient representatives, and providers/staff. These stakeholders will continue to guide and inform SHC’s Health Equity Strategic Planning, goals and any modifications made therein. To further align health equity goals, objectives, and initiatives with organizational efforts and strategic planning, in 2022, SHC engaged Jernigan and Associates Consulting, Inc., a certified Woman and Minority-Owned business committed to helping organizations assess their organizational structure and dynamics, to develop and implement sustainable strategic goals and objectives based on principles of equity, inclusion, accessibility, and intersectional diversity, and inform the design and implementation of evaluations methods to ensure measurable outcomes. Two primary aims of the consulting engagement were:

1. Discovery and Assessment to establish a baseline of current practices;
2. Cultural Audit and review of organizational policies, procedures, and practices to determine prioritization of health equity change solutions. In addition, an environmental scan and review of existing practices, policies, and governance was designed to examine and identify areas for recommendations to enhance policies and practices and support staff across the organization to integrate and implement strategies to enhance efforts and work towards goals related to health equity.