Assistant Professor Sarah Valentine Publishes Article on Hospital Response to Environmental Pollution as a Community Health Need

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – October 10, 2023) Empire State University Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing and Allied Health Sarah Valentine is the lead author of an article, which will be published with open access in the November/December issue of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.

The article, entitled “NYS Nonprofit Hospital Assessment and Response to Environmental Pollution as Community Health Need: Prevalence in Community Benefit Practices” focuses on New York state hospital assessment and response to the impact of environmental pollution on health and health inequity.

“Environmental pollution has been identified as a substantial factor in human health and is implicated in economic-class and racial health disparities,” Valentine said. “In our study, we approached a yet uninvestigated phenomenon — the extent to which hospitals, as part of community benefit processes, address environmental pollution as a community health need.”

With hospitals increasingly engaging in determinants of health, they are able to have a greater role in addressing overarching health issues in their communities — such as population health, health equity, and environmental justice.

“Based on our findings, we propose that there is a need to better facilitate warranted hospital action on environmental pollution when present as a community health need,” Valentine said.

Read the article here: https://journals.lww.com/jphmp/fulltext/2023/11000/nys_nonprofit_hospital_assessment_and_response_to.33.aspx#.