Why Health Stewardship?
Health and health care are limited resources that require careful and responsible management. This is what we mean when we say, “health stewardship.” We believe our health system should be sustainable, self-sufficient, and built on mutually respectful interrelationships. We are all connected and individual decisions and actions ripple out to affect the whole system. Good stewardship is necessary for our well-being.
Most people associate the concept of stewardship with the environment or philanthropy, where resources are finite—and it may seem strange to think of health care as a limited resource. However, our health care system is under strain, a reality evidenced by everything from provider and drug shortages to frustrations with health care coverage, to uncertainty about treatment decisions, to difficulty accessing care and long wait times for appointments, to widening disparities in access to care and quality of care. We believe that fostering health and healthcare stewardship may help us become more conscientiousness consumers of health care. Read more about the philosophy of healthcare stewardship here.