Volunteering in the community is “part of the organizational DNA” of Atrium Health. The company takes it responsibility to build the diversity and inclusion pipeline seriously.
Atrium’s “teammates” (as the company calls its employees) provide volunteer hours that amount to millions of dollars annually, the company says. Atrium has partnerships with local school systems and the company hires, on average, 150 interns annually. Atrium teammates participate in reading and mentoring programs with local elementary schools, and the company participates in an executive-on-loan program with a local nonprofit.
Company executives say that diversity and inclusion “are an integral part of Atrium’s culture.” And that they “are on a mission to improve health, elevate hope and advance healing – for all.” The company has a Diversity Agenda that embraces removing barriers and enhancing equity for all of its employees, says the Diversity Leadership.
Atrium has strategic relationships with industry-specific organizations for the purpose of recruiting diverse professionals and women. The company’s residents of color represent it with the Student National Medical Association, a partnership that Atrium credits with “providing an excellent platform for underrepresented physicians from across the country to learn about our organization firsthand.” The relationship “has yielded great results in supporting our goal of having our providers more consistently mirror the demographics of the communities we they serve.
With regard to veterans, Atrium partners with the United States Army Special Operations Command in a “first of its kind in the nation, innovative program.” The partnership integrates military trauma and emergency care teams into the company’s clinical operations. The program includes four, multidisciplinary Forward Surgical Resuscitation Teams comprised of 10 active duty trauma and emergency care providers, including general surgeons, CRNAs, emergency medicine physicians, advanced practice providers, registered nurses and advanced tactical provider medics.
According to one Atrium Health physician leader, “We provide the teams with an opportunity to experience large volumes of trauma; and they gain exposure to cutting edge clinical care, top notch academics and best in class emergency care.” Atrium considers the partnership a “win-win” as it provides an excellent opportunity to recruit military personnel once they are no longer active duty.
Atrium holds an annual Disability Summit designed to educate and create a culture of respect, engagement, and trust. The company actively recruits physicians and staff with disabilities “to model what is possible for their patient populations throughout the Atrium system. The company recruits physicians and teammates with physical limitations as well as therapists who have overcome behavioral and alcohol addictions because, the company feels, patients can better relate to caregivers who have “walked in their shoes.”
