News : Community Health Needs Assessment

Comm. Health Needs Assessment

In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was passed by congress which included many provisions including a requirement for not-for-profit hospitals to conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) every three years. Due to this,Linn County Public Health (LCPH) facilitated a CHNA for St. Luke’s Hospital and Mercy Medical Center to support these new PPACA requirements. The assessment covered the Linn County hospitals’ eight county region and was designed to identify the major health and socioeconomic issues that disproportionately impacted this region. Benton County Public Health was also active in process and co-facilitated this CHNA for the Virginia Gay Hospital.

Linn County Public Health utilized the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) framework which was developed by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct the CHNA. Throughout this process an extensive amount of both qualitative and quantitative data associated with health indicators was collected, organized and analyzed to support each hospital’s development of a health improvement or community be nefit plan. Special care was taken to solicit involvement from a diverse representation of community leaders, organizations, and residents to satisfy the requirements established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. To further support this process and ensure that the hospitals’ needs were being met, a CHNA Steering Committee was organized, which met regularly to discuss the implementation of the MAPP framework and the process of the assessment. A list of CHNA Steering Committee members can be found at the end of this document.

This document provides a brief overview of the framework and key findings of the MAPP assessment. It begins by providing background on the process and then describes each of the four components of the MAPP assessment. It is encouraged that community leaders use this document to identify local priorities, create SMART objectives based on those priorities, and if necessary, seek funding to support the implementation of tactics to address the objectives. An appendix with supporting documents accompanies this CHNA report which can be used to help support the identification of each hospital’s regional health priorities, goals and objectives.

To view the entire Community Health Needs Assessment, please click here.