Harris Health Sheila Jackson Lee Center for Accelerating Health Outcomes​ (CARE)

Food Security

Harris Health's Food Farmacy Program provides patients with food insecurity and chronic diseases, including uncontrolled diabetes, with a supply of fresh fruits, vegetables and food items, as well as individual targeted education, nutritional guidance and cooking classes.

• 24,600+ visits completed by the Food Farmacy in 2025
• 98% of patients are satisfied with Food Farmacy

Health Harming Legal Needs

Harris Health and South Texas College of Law Houston have teamed up to provide free legal services to eligible patients needing to address health harming situations. Health harming legal needs include assistance with concerns such as intimate partner violence, family law, including divorce and child custody, resolving landlord/tenant issues and more.

• 2,700+ patients screened for health-harming legal needs in 2025
• 60+ patients directly connected to free legal services through South Texas College Law in 2025

Community Health Workers

Harris Health’s Community Health Worker (CHW) Program embodies Harris Health 's health hub philosophy and takes it on the go. This program brings tailored diabetes education directly to the homes of patients who have uncontrolled diabetes and are disengaged from care. Patients are educated on how to effectively navigate Harris Health to increase their connection to their diabetes care team and community resources. The program also empowers community health workers to engage, educate and grow by advancing CHW professional development.

• 640+ patients enrolled in the Community Health Worker program in 2025
• 77% of patients connected to community resources
• 360+ attendees at training opportunities including webinars and the Annual CHW Conference

Exceptional Heart Healthcare

Harris Health announced a five-year focus on heart health to improve heart health outcomes, including blood pressure control. One of the many innovative care programs for heart health is HealthyConnect, a remote blood pressure monitoring program. HealthyConnect uses patient reported data to monitor and capture important medical information provided by the patient. The goal is to keep patients healthy and improve quality of life in-between healthcare provider visits.

• 1,290+ patients served by the HealthyConnect program in 2025

Emergency Center Super Users

Multivisit patients (MVPs), also called high users or super users, are patients with needs not well met by the healthcare delivery system as it is currently designed. At Harris Health, MVPs are defined as those with greater than 10 emergency center visits per year. The program relies on community health workers who spend time with MVPs to identify issues they may be experiencing, such as housing instability or food insecurity, that negatively impact their health. The community health workers emphasize meeting patients at the bedside to get a detailed sense of what they are struggling with and how the program can help. Harris Health chooses to transform care delivery to better meet these patients’ needs, leading to reduced emergency visits and improved stability.

• 1,080+ patients served by the MVP program in 2025

Environmental Advocacy

Harris Health leaders played a key role in advocating against a permit for a new concrete crushing plant next to Harris Health Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital. Team members worked with key experts from UTHealth to research the negative air quality and health effects of concrete crushing plants and collaborated with local organizations, including air quality coalitions, to write policy statements and briefs opposing concrete crushing facilities. Harris Health leaders also participated in local events and met with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrators to ensure the issue gets the attention it deserves.

Early Career Pipeline Development

Harris Health Workforce and Community Connections team expanded its programming in 2025 to include early-career pipeline strategy through structured high school career exploration and work-study programs. These initiatives provide Houston-area students with early exposure to healthcare careers, professional environments and hospital operations, strengthening Harris Health's long-term workforce pipeline through intentional community partnership and experintial learning. These initiatives expanded healthcare career awareness, increased exposure to clinical and non-clinical roles, strengthened partnerships with school districts and created a scalable foundation for future internships and apprenticeships.

• 400+ high school students served by the early career pipeline initiatives in 2025

Community & Connections Program

Community & Connections provides applied, practice-focused learning that strengthens inclusive leadership, culturally responsive care and effective communication in healthcare settings. Through expert led sessions, lived-experience panels, rebroadcast learning, on-demand workshops, and employee resource groups, Community & Connections equips employees with practical tools to navigate complex workspace and patient interactions. Strong attendance and engagement trends demonstrate that employees value learning experiences that directly support patient-centered care, team effectiveness and a respectful workspace culture. Sessions are designed to translate awareness into daily workspace and patient-care practices.

• 1.500+ employees attended webinars on high-impact topics
• 860+ employees on-demand workshops
• 760+ employees engaged in Employee Resource Groups

Community Events

Community events, like health fairs, are vital to health equity. The events allow Harris Health to directly engage with community members, hear their voices and understand their unique needs, ensuring healthcare services are relevant and accessible.

• 160+ community events completed in 2025
• 58,000+ attendees for the community events in 2025

Community Partnerships

Fostering deep, sustainable partnerships with community-based organizations is crucial for Harris Health. These collaborations provide essential connections and resources, enabling Harris Health to effectively address health disparities and support the overall well-being of the community. One way of ensuring the sustainability of partnerships and connection to resources is through Harris Health Cares, a community resource finder available to support patients' and their families' whole health with low cost to free resources nearby. Examples of available resources include food, housing, transportation and utility assistance programs.

• 8,100+ referrals made to local community resources through the Harris Health Cares site in 2025