Establishing a model of representation to drive national health system change

Since being forged in late 2020, the More in Common Alliance has rapidly gained national attention. There are encouraging reports of inquiries from other system leaders seeking insight on the partnership’s origin and approach. And the inside track to CommonSpirit sites and staff has accelerated the pace of Morehouse School of Medicine’s proven approach to diversity-oriented education programs. Similar programs are taking shape in other regional campuses, as well, suggesting potential for valuable knowledge sharing.

We recognize, though, that while pronouncements from industry champions such as Wright Lassiter and Valerie Montgomery Rice are inspiring, this movement will demand organic, regional, grassroots investment to achieve its full potential. This investment will come through sharing our model openly, to stimulate interest from other system and institution leaders. It will require those leaders gaining a full understanding of the practical benefits of this movement — and the risk of not joining it. These are the stakeholders who need to embrace what we are doing in terms of their communities, the workforce needs, their reputations, and their bottom lines. Ultimately the entire national health care and medical education community needs to be informed and aligned to the point that they are willing to take their own positive steps so as not to be left behind.

The More in Common Alliance may be the first and the largest initiative of its kind. But even a smaller investment of resources can turn the tide organically in other places. By creating a high-visibility national model — showing what we’re doing, how and where we’re doing it, and why — we want other leaders to reflect and think, “if this relatively resource-poor Catholic health system and small, historically black medical school can do this, maybe we can too.”

Regular communication about the progress the More in Common Alliance is making is key to serving as a national model. We have been and will continue share what’s working, where the hurdles lie, what’s next, and ways that interested advocates can help. CommonSpirit Health CEO Wright Lassiter, immediate past board chair of the American Hospital Association, is well positioned to keep his colleagues informed, as are our respective community outreach teams, recruitment representatives, and communication executives to their respective audiences. 

Erica Sutton, senior associate dean for academic affairs and affiliations at Morehouse, is presenting to the Association of American Medical Colleges Affinity Group on regional medical campuses. We plan to publish the work that went into our Undergraduate and Graduate Medical Education playbooks. We want to share our roadmap and show others how it can be done. We are making this investment in communications to spread the word so that everyone — not just health system CEOs — can understand what we’re doing and why.

And one thing we want the entire health care world to know is that this is not just about social justice or doing what’s right – as important as those might be. It’s about their patients getting better primary care, which means they're presenting in acute care facilities with less disease progression and costing fewer resources to treat. Their providers have greater patient cooperation, and their teams have greater synergy. It’s a noble cause, but one underpinned by practicality, and we need to make sure that’s understood.