When MHA’s Executive Committee approved our Commitment to Racial Equity recently, we put in writing our shared mission to right historic wrongs in our communities, our hospitals, and in the health care field.

The Committee expects us to produce real, meaningful change both in our organizations and in our communities.

With the help of our member-led groups and many of your health equity leaders, we’re working to set measurable goals for MHA’s part of the work.

Next month, the Committee also will consider field-wide metrics—part of our pledge to deliver transparent, uniform metrics to show advancement toward racial equity.

Dr. Maulik Joshi, CEO at Meritus Health, in a piece in NEJM Catalyst, urges health care leaders to move beyond “general talk on issues and actively work on specific actions.”

That is exactly what we all must to do.

Hospitals will continue to play a key role in social progress as major employers, essential voices in policy discussions, and as organizations having a deep history of caring for people, particularly the most vulnerable.

As Maryland hospitals always have done, we will join with one another to meet this enormous challenge.

Even amid the pandemic—when time and resources are sorely limited— we must move forward. To make deep and lasting changes will take time, so we cannot delay.

Everyone at MHA is committed to this vital mission. We look forward to partnering with you on the hard work ahead.

Bob Atlas
President & CEO