Role of quantitative community health assessment data in selecting regional health priorities in a federally-required community health needs assessment

Non-profit hospitals are required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to conduct community health needs assessments (CHNA) every three years to identify and respond to health needs in the their communities. The law states that the CHNA must take into account input from persons who represent the broad interests of the community served by the hospitals, including those with special knowledge of or expertise in public health. Public health departments have similar requirements to satisfy national public health accreditation purposes. In response to these prerequisites, four local public health departments and fourteen area hospitals in the Portland, OR – Vancouver, WA metropolitan area formed the Healthy Columbia Willamette collaborative to conduct a CHNA. The group used a modified version of the Mobilizing Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) model to identify key community health concerns. Health department epidemiologists developed a tool to screen and prioritize a wide array of quantitative community health indicators to create a subset of high priority health issues based on this epidemiological analysis. This presentation will describe the degree to which the quantitative health status assessment influenced the final selection of priorities and, consequently, health improvement strategies in these CHNAs. Presenters will also discuss the relative contribution of quantitative data compared with qualitative data (e.g., stakeholder interviews, focus groups) from the perspectives of both hospital and local public health department representatives. Finally, presenters will discuss ways to strengthen the value of quantitative health assessment as an important part of the process.