Expanding the borders of community health: Putting GIS in the hands of safety-net health centers for community health planning

Federally qualified health centers (HC) operating in medically underserved areas may benefit from analyses generated by geographic information systems (GIS) for strategic planning, resource allocation, disease management, and community outreach. However, the complex software and necessary technical expertise are often beyond the reach of a typical HC with limited resources and personnel. To overcome this barrier and capture the power of GIS for community health planning, Unity Health Care, Inc. (Unity), a large urban HC system, with its academic and policy partners have piloted Health Landscape (HL), a completely web-based GIS application with a user-friendly interface and community health mapping functions. Using HL, Unity has been able to create service area analyses, plan health center relocation, support grant applications, conduct focused community outreach, and inform quality improvement processes. This presentation will describe and discuss the process and outcomes of the project. Discussion of the process will highlight the successes and challenges in obtaining buy-in from the HC executive management, incorporation into routine data management operations, internal capacity building and training, and development of community-academic partnerships. Discussion of the outcomes will highlight the uses of maps in various HC programs in decision-making. HL aims to make the community health function available to all HCs in the U.S., and the lessons learned from this pilot will be useful to other HCs and community-based organizations.