NYC Health + Hospitals today announced that the health system spent more than $747 million with minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs) in Fiscal Year 2022.
This represents more than a 3,000% percent increase in M/WBE spending compared to the $24 million directed to M/WBE companies in Fiscal Year 2017 and 32 percent of all eligible procurement spending by the health system.
The record support to M/WBE amount follows a concerted effort to change the way the health system contracts and manages its supply chain services, encouraging and identifying more M/WBEs to respond to requests for proposals and other solicitations.
Significant gains in M/WBE were made through software purchases, temporary staffing, and increased reporting compliance from construction vendors. In Fiscal Year 2022, the hospital system did business with 363 unique M/WBE businesses.
M/WBEs account for an array of goods and services the health system depends on, including information technology, office furniture, facilities maintenance, marketing, moving services, and temporary staff.
“This administration is committed to increasing utilization of minority- and women-owned business enterprises, and NYC Health + Hospitals is a perfect example of this effort,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “Over the past five years, the city’s health system has been dedicated to expanding and purchasing from its pool of eligible businesses, and that has paid off with a record $747 million spent with M/WBEs. As a city we will continue this trend and expand our investments in M/WBEs.”
“As a health system, we want to invest in the communities we provide care for, and that includes maximizing the money we spend with minority- and women-owned businesses,” said NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz, MD. “Every day our procurement team looks for ways to expand our M/WBE portfolio. I am proud of the work we have done over the past five years to achieve this progress.”
“The Board of Directors are extremely conscious of our responsibility to minority- and women-owned businesses, which is why we carefully evaluate every contract that comes before us for approval,” said NYC Health + Hospital’s Chair of the Board José A. Pagán. “Dr. Katz, Dr. DiBari, and the entire team have increased the number of M/WBEs in our portfolio and the amount spent year over year. It’s a model for other health systems.”
“Minority/Women Business Enterprise (M/WBE) participation in all our procurements has been a priority initiative for our committee and a guiding principle for our organization as we seek to drive strategies, solutions, and programs that promote the core values of equity, diversity, and inclusion for the benefit not only for our patients and staff but also for the communities where we operate and all New Yorkers,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Board Member and Chair of the Information Technology, Capital, Strategic Planning and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committees Feniosky Peña-Mora. “With this announcement, we should all be proud to be a part of an organization that prioritizes equity, diversity, and inclusion in all its dimensions, under the leadership of Mayor Adams, Chairman Pagán and Dr. Katz, with the support of Dr. DiBari and the entire NYC Health and Hospitals family.”
“NYC Health + Hospitals, in partnership with our hardworking Board of Directors, has made increasing money spent with M/WBEs a priority and that commitment is reflected here in these new numbers,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Senior Vice President of Business Operations and Chief Pharmacy Officer Danielle DiBari, PharmD. “Over the past several years, we dedicated ourselves to increasing the number of M/WBEs that we work with, and we took a number of critical operational steps to achieve that goal.”
The health system implemented new policies to help increase M/WBE participation, including scoring points for M/WBEs or M/WBE subcontractors in solicitations and allowing discretionary purchases worth less than a million dollars to be made with M/WBEs. The health system’s vendor diversity and procurement teams employed these tools over the ensuing years and further invested in them by hiring additional staff. Executive leadership then cemented these processes in the health system’s first vendor diversity policy in 2021.
NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 43,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible.
For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NYCHealthandHospitals or Twitter at @NYCHealthSystem.
Photo credit: NYC Health + Hospitals’ M/WBE spending grew from $24 million in the Fiscal Year 2017 to $747 million in the Fiscal Year 2022.
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