Downey Medical Center

Community Health is central to our mission because healthy communities are where people thrive. Like our approach to medicine, our work in the community takes a prevention-focused, evidence-based approach. In pursuit of our mission we go beyond traditional corporate philanthropy and grant-making to leverage our internal resources with our physician expertise, clinical practices, health education expertise, and technical assistance. Our commitment to community includes a robust engagement process that lifts the voice of community members and highlights priority health needs in our 2022 Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA). Through this process, Southern California Kaiser Foundation Hospitals identified urgent social and economic factors that negatively impact community health.

Based on the CHNA findings, the 2022 Implementation Strategy (IS) Plans of Southern California Kaiser Foundation Hospitals apply a health equity lens to outline our commitment to invest, partner, and drive change to improve the health of individuals in communities we serve. While each Kaiser Foundation Hospital IS plan is unique to its service area, the high-level focus areas and strategic priorities we aim to address across Southern California in partnership with community organizations are listed below:

Housing: Safe and secure housing is essential for the health of individuals and families. Example measures include home ownership and homelessness, housing affordability, quality, and cost burden.

Mental and Behavioral Health: Mental & behavioral health affects all areas of life, including a person’s physical well-being, ability to work and perform well in school, and to participate fully in family and community activities. Example measures include access to mental health care, poor mental health and stress, and suicide and deaths of despair (Note: there is a separate need category for substance use).

Access to Care: Access to comprehensive, quality health care services is critical for ensuring quality of life. Example measures of access include health care coverage and uninsurance, access to oral health and specialty care, and birth outcomes. 

Income and Employment: Economic opportunity provides individuals with jobs, income, a sense of purpose, and opportunities to improve their economic circumstances over time. Example measures include poverty and unemployment rates, and income inequality.

Structural Racism: Structural racism refers to the normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamics-historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal-that routinely advantage whites while producing cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for people of color. It is reflected in health disparities and inequities by race.

Food Insecurity: Food insecurity occurs when people do not have enough resources to meet their basic needs, including having enough food to eat to lead an active, healthy life. Example measures include accessibility of retail food outlets, SNAP enrollment, and living in food-insecure households.

Across these areas, we work to inspire and support people to be healthier in all aspects of their lives, and build stronger, healthier communities. In addition to dedicating resources through Community Benefit, we also leverage substantial additional assets that improve community health, including our healthcare workforce volunteerism.

At Kaiser Permanente, we believe in using the full range of our organization’s assets to improve the health of the communities we serve. We regularly gather data and seek input from our community partners and members to inform our investments and to guide the development of strategies that can make long-term, sustainable change and improve health. We are pleased to share our 2023 Community Benefit Year-End report for the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Downey that summarizes our efforts and highlight specific strategies and resources we deployed to respond to the prioritized health needs in the community.

Note: While Kaiser Permanente is committed to addressing these needs, local medical centers will strategically and carefully invite community partners to apply for funding in order to address needs that align with the local Implementation Strategy Plans, which may have some variations of the strategic priorities listed above. Please scroll down to view the areas that are currently being funded in this medical center.