Spoiler
Philadelphia Inquirer wrote:Lankenau Medical Center’s manager of patient relations flags down a nurse in scrubs who is hustling past his red-, white- and blue-decked voter information table in the Wynnewood hospital’s busy cafeteria.
Lars Peterson explains how she can add voter registration to her checklist of patient health screening questions:
”Do you drink? Do you smoke? Do you feel safe at home?” he says, ticking off the questions she should routinely ask. “And are you registered to vote?”
Philadelphia-area hospitals are rallying patients and staff to register to vote ahead of a high-stakes presidential election in which Pennsylvania has become a critical battleground.
Hospitals say the initiative is not about playing partisan politics, but rather to address the ways social and economic factors, such as violence, pollution, housing can profoundly affect health.
Hospitals from University City to the Philadelphia burbs have set up information tables alongside cafeteria checkout counters, given staff lanyard badges with a QR code linked to a voter registration website, and changed the computer screensavers to a message reminding them to vote.
Such efforts are being organized nationally through groups like Vot-ER, which describes itself as a nonpartisan voter registration nonprofits, but has drawn criticism from the Republican National Committee and other conservatives for having ties to Democrats.
“You go to the doctor’s office to receive medical care, not to get a political lecture,” said Kush Desai, the RNC’s Pennsylvania communications director for former President Donald Trump’s campaign. “This is a clear abuse of the doctor-patient relationship.”
Program leaders at Philadelphia-area hospitals said they don’t care how people vote, and train staff to never discuss politics.
“Health-care providers are not out to gain something for themselves from this initiative,” said Judd Flesch, an associate professor of clinical medicine at Penn, who is involved in the system’s voter registration efforts. “It’s a health-care provider talking about how your health and civic responsibilities overlap.”
A study of 44 countries, including the U.S., found that people who were registered to vote reported better health, according to findings published in the Journal of Preventive Medicine & Public Health.
Nonpartisan or not?
Vot-ER has partnered with at least 50 organizations in Pennsylvania, including some of Philadelphia’s leading health systems: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Jefferson Health, Penn Medicine, Main Line Health (which owns Lankaneau) and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.
Some conservatives are taking issue with the politics behind its creation.
Vot-ER’s partnership with the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute in Harrisburg was the subject of an article in August published by the Free Beacon, a conservative media outlet, which called it a leading player in a Democratic-backed directive “turning health care centers into political battlegrounds.”
The outlet drew attention to the nonprofit’s perceived support of the Democratic Party, a complaint repeated in several other conservative media and blog reports this summer.
Vot-ER was founded by Alister Martin, a practicing physician and former White House fellow under Vice President Kamala Harris. And the Biden administration in 2021 ordered federal agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services to work with health-care providers to expand voter registration through similar initiatives.
Earlier this month, the Republican National Convention issued letters to the secretaries of state offices overseeing elections in six swing states — including Pennsylvania — urging elections officials to monitor Vot-ER ahead of the general election.
Vot-ER does not endorse political parties or politicians, complies with all election laws, and has board members from both political parties, executive director, Aliya Bhatia, said in a statement.
The American Medical Association is among the prominent medical professional groups that shares its view of voting as a social driver of health, she added.
“We want to make sure all eligible voters can have their voices heard in federal, state, and local elections that shape our health outcomes in America,” Bhatia said in a statement.
What are Philadelphia hospitals doing to register voters?
Philadelphia-area hospitals that partner with Vot-ER emphasized that participation is voluntary for staff and patients.
CHOP uses voter registration materials from Vot-ER because they’re “family friendly to use and easy to access,” said Ashlee Murray, an emergency medicine physician at CHOP.
Advertisement
The nonprofit makes lanyards with plastic ID cards that say “Ready to vote?” and are printed with a QR code that, when scanned, takes people to the website TurboVote, a nonpartisan third-party voter registration website.
Temple Health does not partner with Vot-ER, but similarly encourages doctors to talk to patients about why it’s important to vote, whether they are registered, and whether they plan to vote in-person or through a mail-in ballot.
“It’s important for people to take charge of their individual health and the health of their communities,” said Nicolle Strand, director of the Center for Urban Bioethics within Temple’s medical school.
Overcoming voting challenges for patients and providers
Volunteers at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children have found that patient families often aren’t registered to vote for logistical reasons: They don’t know how, think they need to go to an elections office, or worry it will take too long. Others are registered, but weren’t planning to vote because getting to the polls is inconvenient, said Angela Kim, a pediatric emergency medicine doctor at the North Philadelphia children’s hospital.
“Many of our patient families are juggling multiple jobs and have social needs that preclude them from taking off a day to go to the polls,” she said.
Volunteers can help families register on the spot, or can show them how to apply for an absentee ballot.
During previous election cycles, Penn Medicine set up kiosks in the emergency department offering patients voting information and registration help. But they often got unplugged and didn’t get much use from patients with more pressing medical issues on their mind.
Encouraging providers to carry QR code lanyards makes the interaction more personal and helps doctors build relationships with patients, said Aliza Narva, director of ethics at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, who helps organize the hospital’s voter registration efforts.
Inside Lankenau Medical Center’s cafeteria on a recent Tuesday, nurse Daria Salvitti stopped to take a lanyard from the information table.
She thinks patients will welcome the conversation and appreciate that their nurses and doctors were interested in aspects of their life beyond a diagnosis.
“I think everyone’s voice should be heard,” she said.
They insist the effort is nonpartisan. However, here in Montgomery County and in Philadelphia, most newly registered voters are Democrats.
>>> A study of 44 countries, including the U.S., found that people who were registered to vote reported better health, according to findings published in the Journal of Preventive Medicine & Public Health. <<<
Probably because sick people have more pressing concerns then voting. Correlation does not imply causation.
