"As a health system, we want to invest in the communities we provide care for, and that includes maximizing the money we spend with minority and women-owned businesses," NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz says.
NYC Health + Hospitals has announced that over the course of fiscal 2022 the largest municipal healthcare system in the nation invested over $747 million in minority- and women-owned business enterprises. This is a 3,000% increase in M/WBE spending compared to the $24 million directed to M/WBE companies in Fiscal Year 2017 and 32% of all eligible procurement spending by the health system.
"As a health system, we want to invest in the communities we provide care for, and that includes maximizing the money we spend with minority and women-owned businesses," NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz, MD, said in the announcement. "Every day our procurement team looks for ways to expand our M/WBE portfolio. I am proud of the work we have done over the past five years to achieve this progress."
NYC Health + Hospitals support for M/WBE was part of a concentrated effort to change how the health system contracts and manages its supply chain services, encouraging and identifying more M/WBEs to respond to hospitals’ requests for proposals.
"The Board of Directors are extremely conscious of our responsibility to minority- and women-owned businesses, which is why we carefully evaluate every contract that comes before us for approval," NYC Health + Hospital’s Chair of the Board José A. Pagán, said in the release. "Dr. Katz, Dr. DiBari, and the entire team have increased the number of M/WBEs in our portfolio and the amount spent year over year. It’s a model for other health systems."
Amanda Schiavo is the Finance Editor for HealthLeaders.