ANNUAL
REPORT

2024

A Message From Our CEO

Dear Friends of the Schwartz Center,

As we reflect on 2024, I am filled with profound gratitude and optimism for the future of compassionate healthcare. This year marked a pivotal moment for the Schwartz Center as we entered our 30th anniversary year, launched our ambitious new vision for the future, and reaffirmed our commitment to fostering compassion in healthcare.

Our mission is to partner with healthcare organizations to advance compassion for patients, care teams, and their healing relationships.

For three decades, the Schwartz Center has championed the human connection in healthcare. Today, as our healthcare system faces unprecedented challenges – from provider burnout to health disparities – our mission has never been more vital. Our future vision builds upon this foundation while charting bold new directions to meet the evolving needs of patients, families, healthcare teams, and organizations.

Our plan focuses on three key elements: expanding the reach of our Schwartz Rounds® program to support more healthcare organizations and professionals, building a community of compassionate care champions, and advancing our model for compassionate healthcare as a framework for change. Through these initiatives, we aim to transform healthcare culture and improve outcomes for all.

Our vision is to be a global leader in championing compassion for all who seek and provide healthcare.

Our signature Schwartz Rounds program continues to provide essential support to healthcare providers and teams, while our expanded educational offerings, including our popular Compassion in Action webinar series, and our recently relaunched in-person Advanced Trainings, are helping us reach more caregivers than ever before.

As we implement our vision, we remain inspired by the legacy of Ken Schwartz, who recognized that what matters most in healthcare is the human connection between caregiver and patient. His insight continues to guide our work as we adapt to meet contemporary challenges while staying true to our foundational values.

 

Michael Gustafson Signature

Michael Gustafson, MD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer

Future Vision

For three decades, the Schwartz Center has been at the forefront of championing and increasing compassionate connections in healthcare. Through our efforts, we have reduced psychological distress in care teams and increased empathetic care for patients – all which lead to improved health outcomes. In today’s healthcare landscape, marked by unprecedented challenges including provider burnout, technological overload, and persistent health inequities, our purpose resonates more powerfully than ever before. Our future vision will cultivate compassion in healthcare and its associated benefits for patients, families, healthcare teams and organizations. We’ll achieve this by:

  • Reaching More People and Places with the Time-Tested and Proven Effectiveness of the Schwartz Rounds Program: Extending our signature program to support more healthcare organizations and professionals worldwide.
  • Building a Community of Compassion Champions: Fostering a vibrant community of compassionate care advocates and leaders.
  • Advancing the Power of Compassion to Transform Organizations: Implementing the Schwartz Compassionate Care Model as a framework to drive institutional change, supported by an expanded set of programs and partnerships.

 

 

Our Impact

61,960+ caregivers, representing 50 states and 39 countries, viewed our Compassion in Action Webinar Series.

Our programs and resources are utilized by caregivers across the country and around the world.

More than 900 sites across the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand run our Schwartz Rounds program.

The Schwartz Rounds program provides a regular open forum for a multidisciplinary discussion of the psychosocial and emotional aspects of working in healthcare. Each session is organized around a compelling theme or patient story, and includes both clinical and nonclinical panelists and participants. More than 100 peer-reviewed and descriptive studies have documented the benefits of the Schwartz Rounds program for over 25 years.

90% of attendees reported a greater understanding of the psychosocial and emotional aspects of patient care

85% of respondents said the Schwartz Rounds increased their understanding and practice of empathy with patients

 

“Schwartz Rounds reminds us of our humanity… and [that] there are people behind the titles, roles, positions, and jobs we all have. I am deeply impacted by every Schwartz Rounds I attend, whether I think I will be or not.” – A nursing leader at one of our member sites

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Healthcare Organizations We Support

NATIONAL COMPASSIONATE CAREGIVERS OF THE YEAR

The National Compassionate Caregivers of the Year® (NCCY) Award recognizes extraordinary healthcare professionals from across the country who embody the characteristics of compassionate care and whose professional achievements have helped to create healing healthcare environments for patients, families, colleagues, and communities. To learn more, visit the NCCY page.

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Mental Health and Well-being Resources

41,725+ caregivers accessed our mental health and well-being resources page.

This page shares resources and information to help caregivers and healthcare leaders manage the stress and anxiety they are experiencing. 

One popular resource is our special webinar series featuring leading practitioners and researchers. You are invited to watch the recorded webinars and sign up for upcoming sessions.

 

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Donor Spotlight

Steve Corman

This year, we mourn the loss of a visionary, philanthropist, and cherished friend of the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare. Together with his late wife Betsy, Steve made a lasting contribution by naming the Schwartz Center in his will. Steve and Betsy’s extraordinary commitment to advancing compassionate healthcare led to the creation of the Corman IMPACT Honors, a program that has recognized and elevated programs that promote innovative, compassionate care.

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This year, we mourn the loss of a visionary, philanthropist, and cherished friend of the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare. Together with his late wife Betsy, Steve Corman’s extraordinary commitment to advancing compassionate healthcare led to the creation of the Corman IMPACT Honors, a program that has recognized and elevated programs that promote innovative, compassionate care.

Steve was one of the first members of the Schwartz Center Legacy Society, Steve made a lasting contribution by naming the Schwartz Center in his will.  We are grateful that Steve understood the importance of compassion – and joined the Schwartz Center’s Legacy Society as a charter member prior to his passing. His sustaining gift to the Schwartz Center will help to ensure the well-being of future generations of healthcare workers and sustain generations of caregivers, including doctors, nurses, and all healthcare workers, to feel increased compassion and engagement toward patients. 

Steve’s warmth, wisdom, and unwavering belief in the power of compassion to transform healthcare will be deeply missed.

Donor Spotlight

Ellen and Michael Gordon

“Donating to the Schwartz Center is a philanthropic priority for us. As a psychotherapist (Ellen) and a surgeon (Michael), we know firsthand the importance of compassionate caregiving, as well as the emotional toll it takes on caregivers. The Schwartz Center addresses these priorities with the Schwartz Center Rounds, the Compassion in Action webinars, and other mission-driven programming. We are so proud of the Center’s continued growth and success.” — Ellen Gordon

 

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“Donating to the Schwartz Center is a philanthropic priority for us. As a psychotherapist (Ellen) and a surgeon (Michael), we know firsthand the importance of compassionate caregiving, as well as the emotional toll it takes on caregivers. The Schwartz Center addresses these priorities with the Schwartz Rounds, the Compassion in Action webinars, and other mission-driven programming. We are so proud of the Center’s continued growth and success.” — Ellen Gordon

Michael and Ellen Feldberg Gordon have been supporters of the Schwartz Center since its inception in 1995. Michael, an orthopedic surgeon, and Ellen, a psychologist, generously underwrite the Schwartz Center’s Compassion in Action webinar series each year as well as the Marjorie Stanzler Fund which provides access to Schwartz Center programs to healthcare organizations that could otherwise not afford them.

Donor Spotlight

Paresh Purohit

“Our contribution to the Schwartz Center offers us a unique opportunity to directly support healthcare providers in today’s challenging healthcare environment.  It is a privilege for us to support the Schwartz Center’s mission and work, which enables healthcare professionals to provide outstanding human-centered care, providing patients and their families with hope, empathy, and compassion during their most vulnerable moments.” –Paresh Purohit

 

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Paresh Purohit and Ritu Trivedi-Purohit have supported the Schwartz Center since 2015. Paresh attended our Annual Kenneth B. Schwartz Center Compassionate Healthcare Dinner for the first time in 2013 where he was moved by the stories shared by our National Compassionate Caregivers of the Year award and guest speaker Dr. Atul Gawande. Paresh lives outside Chicago, where he is a vice president at Marsh McLennan Agency, which provides business insurance, employee health & benefits, retirement, and private client insurance solutions. He is also a member of the Schwartz Center Leadership Council.

 

Donor Spotlight

Foley & Lardner and Larry Vernaglia

“The mission of the Schwartz Center is closely aligned to the many family stories that drew my colleagues and me at Foley & Lardner to the practice of health care law. Our support of this wonderful organization is really a perfect fit with our firm’s core values. The Schwartz Center has benefited two generations of caregivers at healthcare organizations we value and serve. And on a personal level, the Schwartz Center’s wonderful events are among the social programs that members of the health care and health law community can never miss! It is a distinct honor to give some small measure of benefit to this wonderful organization and the thoughtful professionals who make it thrive!” — Larry Vernaglia

 

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Larry is a partner and healthcare lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, with three decades of experience representing hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, and a variety of other health care providers. He serves as outside policy counsel for the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association and is a lecturer at Boston University’s School of Law. Larry has been a member of the Schwartz Center Leadership Council since 2023.

The Marjorie Stanzler Fund

“Schwartz Rounds are important because actively tending to our well-being as healthcare workers has never been more important. We can no longer be passive witnesses to the trauma we see, but rather we need to make time to care for ourselves so that we can continue to care for others. Schwartz Rounds keep me going.”
– Mia Lozada, MD, Gallop Indian Medical Center, NM

The Marjorie Stanzler Fund (MSF) was established in 2015 to create access to Schwartz Center programs for healthcare organizations that otherwise could not afford them. As health disparities have widened in the U.S., many healthcare institutions, such as safety net hospitals, small rehab centers, VA hospitals, and community health clinics, have been unable to allocate funds to support programs for their caregivers’ well-being and mental health. Grants from the Marjorie Stanzler Fund help remove financial barriers for healthcare organizations to support their staff through evidence-based programs like the Schwartz Rounds and Stress First Aid to stem the unprecedented rate of caregiver burnout in the U.S. today. In 2024, the Marjorie Stanzler Fund supported Schwartz Rounds at 19 hospitals across the U.S. and we hope to provide even more access in 2025.

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Dr. Beth Lown Innovation Fund

The Dr. Beth Lown Innovation Fund supports expansion of our signature Schwartz Rounds program via new adaptations for existing acute care hospitals, as well as new uses across the broader healthcare continuum. Funding also accelerates the development and evaluation of new programs and tools to meet evolving patient and care team needs, all with the goal of elevating compassion in healthcare settings across the United States and around the world. Funds raised through the Dr. Beth Lown Innovation Fund gives the Schwartz Center the agility to respond to current and emerging needs with bold ideas and innovative approaches, with the potential to transform the healthcare landscape.

 

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Financial Highlights 2024

During Fiscal Year 2024, 78% of all spending was directed to mission-specific programming.* Fundraising and administrative costs represent the remainder. Strategic investments in programs resulted in an expected $800k loss in Fiscal Year 2024.

 

*Industry benchmarks suggest that at least 70% of funds raised directly support mission-focused programs.

Webinar
Webinar

Looking Ahead

Looking to the future, we remain committed to supporting health workers during this tumultuous time in healthcare. We will continue to expand our reach to more caregivers and their patients. Our work has never been more important, and the impact of your support has never been more meaningful.

Thank you for joining us in our mission to advance compassion for patients, care teams, and their healing relationships.