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Previous Awardees

2022 Tyson Award Recipients

NYC Health + Hospitals - In 2019, NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest municipal healthcare system in the nation, launched NYC Care, a citywide healthcare access program for New Yorkers who are ineligible for or cannot afford health insurance, including undocumented individuals. The city estimates that there over 400,000 undocumented immigrants who are uninsured and are more likely to forego essential primary and preventive care.

NYC Care provides access to low or no-cost primary and specialty care, prescription medicines, member materials in multiple languages, a membership card, and a 24-hour customer service line. The program leverages a system-wide integrated electronic medical record system, e-referral system, and telehealth platforms to provide high-quality, coordinated care to NYC Care members.

This initiative:

  • Enrolled more than 100,000 members, who made 264,976 primary care visits and 227,481 specialty visits by February 2022.
  • Improved clinical outcomes: After six months of enrollment, 51% of enrollees with diabetes had improved hemoglobin A1C, and 68% of enrollees with hypertension had improved blood pressure.

See below link to learn more about their initiative, strategies employed, interventions implemented, and key take-aways for replicability.

NYC Health + Hospitals - Making Healthcare a Human Right: Expanding Access to Healthcare to Undocumented New Yorkers


Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women - In March 2019, Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women began stratifying data by race and ethnicity and determined that non-Hispanic Black women had the highest rates of severe maternal morbidity from hemorrhage (SMM-H). A gap analysis identified interventions to reduce morbidity from hemorrhage for all pregnant patients, including hemorrhage risk assessment, drills, active management of the third stage of labor, and a multidisciplinary review of serious hemorrhages to identify systematic issues. A health equity lens was applied to these efforts and Black/African American race was added as a medium risk factor for hemorrhage to help address implicit bias and accelerate healthcare team response.

Prior to implementation of these strategies, there was a statistically significant difference between Black and White women for SMM-H rates (p<0.001). This disparity was no longer significant post-intervention (p=0.138), and the rate of SMM-H in Black women decreased significantly from 45.5% to 31.6% (p=0.011). This team’s initiative was described In further detail in Examining the effect of quality improvement initiatives on decreasing racial disparities in maternal morbidity which was published in BMJ Quality & Safety.

See below link to learn more about their initiative, strategies employed, interventions implemented, and key take-aways for replicability.

Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women - Quality Improvement Initiatives on Decreasing Racial Disparities in Maternal Morbidity

2021 Tyson Award Recipient

A UMass Memorial Health team identified and addressed disparities in adherence to well-child visits and guided their initiative with robust and ongoing use of data stratified by race, ethnicity, and language.

The multidisciplinary team interviewed external and internal stakeholders, patients and families. Barriers to adherence for well-child visits identified included transportation, language and scheduling. To improve accessibility and adherence to regular well-child visits, multiple strategies to overcome these barriers were implemented:

  • Conducting well-child visits during acute care appointments
  • Scheduling the next visit at the time of the current visit
  • Providing patients and their families with an information sheet highlighting the importance of preventive care visits
  • Implementing an improved reminder system
  • Making telehealth appointments available
  • Arranging transportation
  • Actively reaching out to patients who canceled or were “no-shows” for their visits to reschedule
  • Creating a well-child tip sheet to help measure success

In just nine months during the COVID-19 pandemic, adherence to child well-visits among Latino pediatric patients rose from 64 percent at baseline to 76 percent; among Black children, adherence improved from 59 percent to 75 percent.

See below link to learn more about their initiative, strategies employed, interventions implemented, and key take-aways for replicability.

UMass Memorial Health - Prioritizing Child Health: Promoting Adherence to Well-Child Visits