Using asset-mapping to supplement a community health needs assessment in a rural county

Background: Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) non-profit hospitals are required to complete a community health needs assessment (CHNA) every three years to maintain tax-exempt benefits. Each CHNA requires hospitals to collaborate with community stakeholders and complete a demographic assessment of the community, a survey and analysis of perceived healthcare issues, and a strategic plan to address those issues and improve community health. To fully understand the health resources available for the rural area of Centre County, Pennsylvania, the 2013 CHNA conducted by a local hospital utilized an asset-mapping framework. Asset-mapping is a strategy that attempts to improve community health by identifying available assets after analyzing community needs, allowing key stakeholders to form partnerships to unite resources toward community health goals.

Methods: Facilities that contribute to quality of life were identified and categorized by resource type. Assets were further selected for one of the potential partnership areas identified by the initial health needs analysis: access to care, healthy aging, substance abuse, mental health, dental health, obesity/diabetes.

Results: The resulting asset inventory included 266 health resources, was used to motivate future health improvement strategies, and was made publicly available with the release of the CHNA.

Discussion: This asset-mapping approach may be efficiently applied to other rural county CHNAs to inform patients and key stakeholders about the scope of care available and opportunities for partnership and improvement. Implementation of the CHNA mandate of the ACA may be streamlined by integrating an asset-mapping framework.