As mission-driven organizations, the health system’s mission statement serves as a “North Star” for framing the value of any health system investment. Even outside of health equity investments, executives accept that there will be tradeoffs between investments that bring value to the health system (e.g., profitable service lines) and value to the community (e.g., services needed by the community but in short supply like community-based primary care). Below, we lay out why the focus area of a health system’s mission statement has important implications for internally grounding and socializing health equity strategy.

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