Community health assessment and improvement: Opportunities for collaboration between the local health department and non-profit hospitals in Johnson County, Kansas

Community health assessment and improvement planning are core functions of public health practice. New standards mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Public Health Accreditation Board require non-profit hospitals and local health departments seeking accreditation to regularly conduct a community health needs assessment. This has warranted attention throughout the public health and healthcare community to improve collaboration between local health departments and non-profit hospitals, to reduce duplication of efforts, and to improve sophistication of techniques, so to better serve the public.

The purpose of this individual, exploratory case study was to identify opportunities for collaboration between the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment and the four non-profit hospitals in Johnson County, Kansas. Qualitative methods were used, including a review of each organization’s community health needs assessment and improvement planning documents, as well as semi-structured interviews with key informants from the executive leadership of these organizations.

Three salient themes were identified as opportunities for improved collaboration. The most apparent was collaborating on priorities established in previous community health assessment and improvement planning. Key informants stated that there was sufficient overlap and space for this. Key informants also identified improved data collection, analysis, and interpretation – especially specific to the hospitals’ catchment areas – as an opportunity for improving data-driven decision making. Finally, key informants from the hospitals discussed how the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment could act as a leader and convener for a coordinated community health assessment and improvement process, which could break down the barrier of inter-hospital competition. The Johnson County Department of Health and Environment can use these themes to inform future strategic planning, and the themes may also be relevant to similar local health departments.