The Big Story: Trump-aligned think tank goes after hospitals
“It’s becoming apparent on both sides of the aisle that addressing health care costs means addressing their largest driver: Hospitals.
“The paper[…] suggests that Congress should tie nonprofit hospitals’ tax-exempt status to “measurable and actual charity care instead of vaguely defined community benefit.”
Strong Perception of Community Partnership Can Drive Positive Action
By Isaac Squyres
4-minute read
Same story, different verse. Critics say that hospitals aren’t actually struggling. That they’re responsible for driving costs up. That they’re not doing enough.
It’s become a pervasive narrative that we’ve been writing about for years, and through our latest national survey, we now have solid numbers that demonstrate why it’s a business, trust and advocacy imperative for hospitals to be perceived by the public as a strong community partner.
When people strongly agree that a hospital is a good community partner, they’re twice as likely to speak up for that hospital (potentially helpful when think tanks are on the attack), almost twice as likely to contribute to it with time or money and advocate for it with policy makers…and more than one and a half times more likely to choose it over another provider for care.
In short: Demonstrating community impact isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity that goes well beyond checking the box on a community benefit calculation.
But there’s a catch.
The good news that stronger perception of being a good community partner drives action and affinity among the public raises the question, “Well, how many people actually feel strongly that we’re a good community partner?”
And there’s the rub. The answer: only about a third of U.S. adults, per our research. That’s a start, but to gain support – and market advantage – hospitals need more.
The data comes from the 2026 Community Impact Survey, third in an annual series produced by Jarrard’s Market Research & Insights team. The survey (margin of error: +/- 2%) collected responses from about 2,500 adults across the country who make up a representative snapshot of the population as a whole.
Here are four more survey findings that should cause executive and MarComm teams alike to take a close look at the story they’re telling about their community impact and the tactics they’re using to tell it.
1. Perception of impact influences choice
Seventy percent of those who strongly agree that a hospital is a good community partner say it makes them highly likely to choose that hospital when all else is equal. That’s 19 points better, even than when people somewhat agree a hospital is a good community partner (and 33 points better than when they’re unsure).
If two hospitals in your area were similar in quality, cost and location, how likely would you be to choose the one that you believe is more involved in supporting the local community?
Taking it further, four in 10 people who strongly agree that a hospital is a good community partner would be willing to experience some inconvenience to pick what they see as a more civic-minded hospital.
2. Impact also drives important action
Being seen as a good, mission-oriented partner to the people you serve isn’t just a way to help drive patient volume. It’s also a way to drive action and advocacy. Six in 10 who strongly agree that local hospitals are good community partners say they would be willing to make a personal contribution of time, energy or money if a hospital in their area was being publicly criticized or facing a major crisis. Among those who aren’t sure whether their hospitals are good community partners? Only three in 10 say they’d jump in to help.
3. Community partnership is seen as holistic, going beyond quality
Everybody has a quality story, but do you have an impact story?
Quality matters, no question. That said, when asked an open-ended question to define what makes a good community partner, 70 percent of people offered words and ideas that went beyond quality.
This highlights an important point: Leaders need to think holistically about how the public perceives their organization. The public bases its perspective on the full impact an organization has on its community.
“Impact,” that is. Not “benefit.” Framing matters.
If you’re a long-time reader, you may notice a deliberate focus on “impact.” This year’s survey shows that a reframe, getting away from the weediness that comes with the technical regulatory term “community benefit,” is helpful. Shifting to language that more strongly emphasizes the tangible ways hospitals make a positive difference beyond delivering medical care dramatically boosts public perception.
4. Getting more people to strongly agree
People who strongly believe hospitals are good community partners form a base of support and are willing to stand beside those hospitals in tough times.
The challenge? Again, there aren’t enough of those people. Only 29 percent strongly agree, and many don’t know or don’t have an opinion.
Fortunately, the research also shows a clear path forward to growing that number. As we wrote last year, there are specific activities hospitals pursue that shape perceptions of community benefit and, therefore, support for nonprofit status. The same is true here for community partnership and impact.
Additional data in the survey fills in the lines of how to approach the work. The key? It’s about them, not you. Frame your good work in the context of the people you serve and the needs they have, not the organization you lead and the dollars you spend.
Download the executive summary or contact us here to walk through the full results.
Contributors: David Shifrin, Natalie Brereton, Robert Bailey, Jed Lam, Michael Hildebrand, Katie Stephens, Allie Gross, David Jarrard, Emme Nelson Baxter
Image Credit: Savannah Ray
