Rush University Medical Center is a 664-bed academic medical center and Level II Trauma Center located on the West Side of Chicago. Rush and their community partners are at the forefront of innovative approaches to address the social determinants of health. They graciously met with our experts to share what they’ve learned. Watch the five videos below to hear their experiences firsthand.

The consequences of inaction

Social determinants of health pose a major challenge in Chicago. The inequitable distribution of resources across neighborhoods results in vastly different quality of life and health outcomes for white and black communities. In the primarily black neighborhoods on the West Side of Chicago, where Rush University Medical Center is located, patients are more likely to have serious health challenges and less likely to be able to access and afford the care they need.

In West Garfield Park, one of the neighborhoods on the West Side, 25% of residents are unemployed and 40% live below the poverty line. Per capita income is just over $10,000. Compared with primarily white downtown Chicago neighborhoods, such as the Loop, West Side residents are:

• 4x more likely to die from diabetes
• 3x more likely to die as an infant
• 2x more likely to die from cancer

As a result, West Side residents lose an average of 16 years of life compared with residents of the primarily white neighborhoods in downtown Chicago.

Unearthing root causes

This death gap did not occur by chance. The root causes include the enduring legacies of structural racism and intergenerational poverty.

Many provider organizations now focus on addressing the social determinants of health, and their efforts can meaningfully impact the lives of patients who receive social support. However, most organizations’ initiatives target consequences to the health system—such as ED utilization and readmissions—reflecting a short-term ambition. This approach perpetuates a revolving door of need. In order to break the cycle, leaders need to set a long-term ambition centered on the structural root causes.

Leaders across the health care industry increasingly recognize that a person’s ZIP code is more important to their health outcomes than their genetic code. Mounting evidence demonstrates that when a community faces insufficient social goods—including healthy food, safe housing, and living wages—population health declines. These social determinants of health most negatively impact marginalized populations, including communities of color.