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About Holyoke Medical Center and Valley Health Systems
Our Mission at Holyoke Medical Center is to improve the health of all people in our community. We do that with honesty, respect and dignity for our patients, visitors and staff. We do that through expert and compassionate care, education and knowledge sharing, community partnerships, fostering innovation and growth and by inspiring hope in all we touch. We do that by being good stewards of our resources and providing efficient and cost effective care to all.

Holyoke Medical Center is dedicated to serving our community by providing high-quality healthcare and to reduce Health Care Disparities.

What is Health Care Equity?
Health equity: The attainment of the highest level of health for all people, where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their optimal health regardless of race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, preferred language, or other factors that affect access to care and health outcome. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)

What are Health Disparities?
As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), health disparities occur when an underserved group with a shared characteristic-such as race or disability-is impacted by a preventable issue more frequently or more severely than individuals that do not share in that characteristic. Often, these populations have been historically excluded from social and economic opportunities, resulting in barrier to care and unequal treatment over time. Recognizing and addressing the issues that contribute to health disparities will help achieve health equity.

What is Holyoke Medical Center Doing to Address Health Care Equity and Health Disparities?
Holyoke Medical Center is now collecting information on patient race, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, preferred language, and other factors that affect access to care and health outcomes. Our goal is to meet the needs of all patients we serve. Research has shown that these variables can have an impact on the care people receive. We want to ensure this is not happening here.
Our goal is to remove as many systemic barriers to healthcare as possible. The more we know about our patients and the community we serve the better we are able to ensure all patients receive the highest quality of care from Holyoke Medical Center.

Click here to download the complete Holyoke Medical Center Strategic Plan for Health Equity.