[Medium] In his guest blog, Richard Moore, Co-Coordinator of the Environmental Justice and Health Alliance and 2016 Environmental Health Hero Award recipient, discusses how hospitals can become true community partners for health and justice.

The public generally views hospitals and healthcare centers as a place to go when you’re injured, suffering from a disease, or if you need medical attention for an acute condition. This may seem obvious, especially given that hospitals were conceived as centers of treatment for the acutely ill. Hospitals have developed in this role, and year after year honed their systems and treatments to deliver more effective care for a wider range ailments.

Ironically, while hospitals can now more effectively cure more conditions quicker than ever, people living in the shadows of our most successful medical institutions often face some of the worst health outcomes in the nation. How can this be? Why do people living near centers of healing so often face higher rates of asthma, a greater likelihood of obesity, and more exposure to toxic chemicals which contribute to learning disabilities and chronic health conditions — the very conditions that may eventually send them to the hospital? And, given their institutional mission to improve health, what can hospitals do about this...(Continue reading).