Carrie Bridges Feliz is Lifespan Corp.’s vice president of community health and equity, a position she was promoted to earlier this year. Bridges Feliz has been with the health system since 2015, when she became director of the Lifespan Community Health Institute, an initiative that became a regional leader for public health under her leadership.
Bridges Feliz discusses Lifespan’s efforts to push for health equity and improved access to health care for all Rhode Islanders.
Expanding Women’s Health in Newport
South County Health has expanded its award-winning Center for Women’s Health to Newport, offering a…
Learn More
PBN: What is at the top of your to-do list as you’re settling in to your new role?
BRIDGES FELIZ: I remain committed to advancing health equity. My team is focused on amplifying Lifespan’s efforts to improve the health status, health outcomes and experience of care for our neighbors across the region.
Thankfully, we are emerging from this last wave of COVID in time to conduct fresh community health needs assessments for each of our hospitals. We do these assessments every few years in order to understand the health concerns in our service area and determine what our hospitals can do in response to those concerns. The ultimate goal is to reduce health disparities and advance equity.
PBN: How will your work now differ from your former position as director of the Lifespan Community Health Institute?
BRIDGES FELIZ: I’m looking forward to participating in more enterprise-wide systems improvement initiatives and culture-building work, consistent with the Lifespan 2025 strategic goals. For instance, scaling tools and strategies to mitigate health-related social needs across all of our affiliates. We need to disseminate resources in hyper-local community settings and we must incorporate the expertise of residents and community leaders who are closest to the problems we aim to solve.
PBN: What are some programs that you’re particularly proud of that you helped establish or expanded at the Lifespan Community Health Institute?
BRIDGES FELIZ: I am proud of the marked growth in the number of people served by our free health education and skill-building activities, screening services, clinical interventions and lifestyle change programs. That said, addressing health-related social needs – like access to food, housing and financial security – represents our greatest area of growth and opportunity.
PBN: How is Lifespan working to improve access to health care for all Rhode Island residents?
BRIDGES FELIZ: First and foremost, we are sensitive to where a patient lives, the language they speak, their racial and ethnic background, and the social factors they are navigating. In response, we offer services like transportation assistance and language interpretation; we’re hiring more community health workers who facilitate access for patients; we’re training and hiring more people of color in clinical roles; and we’re committed to diversifying our workforce across all bands of employment.
During the last fiscal year, we served more than 3,400 patients who presented with nearly 7,800 needs at Rhode Island Hospital’s adult and pediatric primary care clinics and I’m eager to extend that assistance to all of our service sites.
PBN: What are some of the specific social determinants of health that you’ve seen making a difference in residents’ health in Rhode Island communities?
BRIDGES FELIZ: We have identified unstable housing as a significant health risk for far too many patients, so our community health workers and social workers help patients secure safe housing, prevent eviction, or navigate the shelter system.
Access to nutritional foods is another perennial need that is connected to well-being, so we teach our clients how to prepare healthy meals on a budget and provide them emergency food supplies when needed.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.
