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An Excellent Investment

By Michael Bilton

A community health assessment yields valuable market information and builds relationships

A community health assessment can pay off in a number of ways for hospitals. While some states and locales require hospitals to produce an assessment of local health needs every few years, doing so is an excellent investment in information and relationships regardless of your particular environment.

At its core, community health assessment is about collecting information on the health status of the population you serve, and using that information to inform decisions about hospital service lines and health promotion and prevention programs.

This simple statement belies a multifaceted undertaking that requires careful planning, specific skills, funding, collaboration, data collection, priority-setting, communication and action planning to meet observed needs. The mechanics of community health assessment can be acquired and understood easily through a variety of resources, including the Asoociation for Community Health Improvement’s Community Health Assessment Toolkit (www.assesstoolkit.org) and the National Association of County & City Health Officials’ “MAPP” process (www.naccho.org/mapp) used by many local health departments to assess needs in conjunction with hospitals.

But what are the benefits of initiating an assessment, and how can hospital executives use the results? A community assessment that provides a comprehensive picture of your community’s health status and unmet needs—and not only its health care needs—can serve several strategic functions.

First, the information gleaned from assessments can help to target your community health programs. Like all hospital resources, community outreach and wellness dollars need to be spent wisely and for specific results. Understanding the prevalence of chronic health conditions, access to care barriers and other health issues—and specifically whether they are more severe in particular neighborhoods or among certain age, racial or ethnic groups—can help direct resources where they will have the biggest impact.

Second, assessments present an excellent opportunity to connect with your local community and to strengthen partnerships with your public health department, schools, YMCA, United Way, community agencies and other hospitals. Collaborating with these mission-focused community stakeholders to collect data and set health priorities can build trust and a foundation for shared responsibility and commitment to tackle community health needs. The assessment process also can be a venue to tell your hospital’s story of community service to influential advocates for health care.

And for nonprofit hospitals, there is a new spotlight on community health assessment with the release of the Internal Revenue Service’s updated Form 990 and new Schedule H. In addition to asking hospitals to report on their “community health improvement services,” Schedule H specifically inquires “how the organization assesses the health care needs of the communities it serves.”

Community health assessment can be a window to unmet needs, a guide to targeting limited resources, a vehicle for strengthening important relationships, and an invaluable tool for keeping your community healthy.

Michael Bilton is vice president of education at the Health Research & Educational Trust, and executive director of the Association for Community Health Improvement.

You can contact our guest author at mbilton@aha.org

This article 1st appeared in the May 2008 issue of HHN Magazine.

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