Community Health Needs Assessments & Implementation
Community Health Needs Assessment
Ascendant Healthcare Partners is a national leader in facilitating and developing Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs) for state, tribal, and local health departments.
CHNAs provide information for problem and asset identification and policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. Our expertise in community engagement, stakeholder engagement, data analysis, and gap prioritization make our firm unique.
With over 25 years of combined expertise, our meticulous analysis and collaborative approach empower communities to implement tailored strategies for sustainable health improvements.
Our commitment to excellence ensures that our assessments serve as invaluable tools for informed decision-making and positive community impact.
Our Methodology
Our firm uses the new National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) Evolution 2.0 model to conduct the community-driven planning process for community health improvement.
This is the ‘gold standard’ for conducting CHNAs.
The MAPP Process:
Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) is an evidence-based planning tool designed to assist your health department with several key objectives, including
- Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) accreditation (initial or renewal)
- Community health assessment
- Coalition building
- Optimizing your collective health impact.
The overarching goal of the MAPP 2.0 process is to achieve health equity, which unfolds through three distinct phases:
- Building the Community Health Improvement Foundation
- Telling the Community Story
- Continuously Improving the Community
In the second phase, “Telling the Community Story,” three assessments play pivotal roles:
- The Community Partner Assessment
- The Community Status Assessment
- The Community Context Assessment
These assessments enable health departments to identify their region’s community health goals, forge diverse partnerships, and gain deeper insights into the historical factors contributing to health and social inequities within the community.
Our assessments are meticulously crafted to uncover the root causes of inequities by collaborating with diverse partners and leveraging their unique assets. This approach ensures the development of targeted and feasible intervention plans aimed at fostering positive change. Additionally, Ascendant Healthcare Partners offers ongoing data analytics support throughout the CHNA process, providing continuous assistance to each health department.
At Ascendant Healthcare Partners, our process begins with what we call the Burning Why Tool. This is a preparatory exercise for local health departments to complete before our initial kickoff meeting. We use this to understand the current health priorities and to identify weaknesses, vulnerabilities, or other unpleasant issues or concerns.
This snapshot will be foundational to the success of any developed initiatives and acts as a sort of GPS for future strategic plans. To know where you want your community to go, you have to understand your starting point.
We then begin NACCHO’s MAPP 2.0 process with the utilization of three specialized types of assessments as part of Community-Based Health Assessments: the Community Partner Assessment, The Community Status Assessment, and the Community Context Assessment.
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Community Partner Assessment
The Community Partner Assessment serves as an enhanced version of the Local Public Health System Assessment utilized in MAPP 1.0. This assessment delves deeper into established and new partner organizations to assess their strengths, missions, skills, and capabilities in improving community health and addressing inequities. It aims to determine how each organization can contribute to the goals of the MAPP process.
A Community Partner assessment is a comprehensive evaluation process aimed at identifying and engaging key stakeholders within a community to foster collaboration and effectively address shared goals and challenges. Through this assessment, organizations seek to understand the community’s strengths, needs, resources, and relationships and networks among various stakeholders.
By engaging with community partners, including local agencies, businesses, nonprofits, and residents, organizations can leverage collective expertise and resources to develop strategic initiatives, programs, and interventions that address the specific needs and priorities of the community. The ultimate goal of a Community Partner assessment is to build strong, sustainable partnerships that drive positive change and improve overall community well-being.
Community Status Assessment
The Community Status Assessment harnesses national, state, and local databases alongside a community-wide survey to comprehensively portray the community’s health landscape. This assessment seeks to understand the community’s current health status from the perspective of its members. Through qualitative tools like surveys, it identifies the community’s experiences, aspirations, and areas for improvement concerning health outcomes and inequities.
Additionally, known as a community-wide survey, this assessment prioritizes inclusivity by involving diverse community members, especially those from marginalized and underrepresented groups. Community champions collaborate with these groups to ensure representation, shedding light on the root causes of inequities impacting the community.
Ascendant Healthcare Partners complements this assessment by offering a data lens with over 150 metrics, drawing from various state, regional, and national databases to examine health status, behaviors, outcomes, and social determinants of health (SDOH).
Community Context Assessment
This assessment delves into the contextual factors that shape a community’s health landscape. With a focus on understanding the community’s strengths, assets, and culture, this assessment emphasizes lived experiences and expertise. We prioritize community residents’ views, insights, and values, employing a proprietary approach to build consensus around the results and pave the way for actionable steps.
Ascendant Healthcare Partners underscores the significance of community collaboration and a continuous feedback loop. Through sustained community engagement, we ensure that the community’s evolving needs are consistently addressed. Our foremost priority is to tailor our efforts to meet your community’s specific and unique needs.
This assessment employs qualitative methods and place-based research to explore community sentiments, experiences with inequities and racism, available assets, and environmental factors driving change. These insights are synthesized to inform the design of implementation plans aimed at addressing identified issues. In essence, this assessment serves as a comprehensive market analysis of the community, guiding strategic decision-making and fostering positive change.
- Community Partner Assessment (CPA) with stakeholders, service providers, and those involved in the community health improvement process.
- Community Status Assessment (CSA) utilizes national, state, and local databases to provide indicators as well as a community-wide survey to tell the community’s story.
- Alignment with Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) standards & measures.
- Clear, well-cited, and easily deployable report and supporting materials.
- Community Context Assessment (CCA) which focuses on the views, insights, and values of residents within the community using a proprietary approach that builds consensus around the results and lays the foundation for action.
- Prioritization of the community needs and service gaps in a way that builds consensus around the results and lays the foundation for action.
- Ongoing support and assistance, as needed.
Our Approach
At Ascendant Healthcare Partners, our core objective is to accurately and efficiently meet the needs of every community we collaborate with, primarily through robust community engagement and collaboration.
Our approach is dynamic and systematic, blending expertise with adaptability to ensure that our strategic plans are precisely tailored to drive meaningful improvements in community health outcomes. A unique aspect of our approach is the Burning Why Tool, which serves as a pivotal step in uniting us with the client to gain a clear understanding of their previous MAPP journey and their intentions for their new Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA).
With this foundation in place, we proceed to identify the health needs, challenges, and priorities of your community through a comprehensive data-gathering and analysis process. This includes examining demographics, health behaviors, access to healthcare services, and other pertinent factors. Our expertise covers all facets of a comprehensive community health assessment report, offering streamlined processes such as project plan templates and checklists, clear compliance guidance, and customized survey templates for partners and the community. We also provide recommendations for additional data sources, measurement, and planning, along with analysis of multiple datasets at the zip code level, including social determinants of health data. Moreover, our services extend to delivering a written final report template that meets state and federal requirements, as well as consulting services to assist with all components of your community health assessment.
We achieve this through a dynamic and systematic approach that combines expertise and adaptability, ensuring our CHNA and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) are tailored to foster meaningful improvements in community health. Our CHNA serves as the cornerstone for identifying priority health needs within a community, while the CHIP outlines the strategies and interventions to address those needs. Together, they provide a comprehensive framework for guiding actions and investments in community health initiatives, ensuring targeted and impactful improvements in the well-being of our communities.
We work to identify your community’s health needs, challenges, and priorities by gathering and analyzing a plethora of data on demographics, health behaviors, access to healthcare services, and more. This individualized approach allows us to modify our methodology for each community based on the community’s unique needs. Our core approach includes:
- Purposeful, Guided Approach: Through systematic evaluation, we identify health needs, challenges, and priorities for your community. We gather and analyze data that provides valuable insight into its health status. The CHNA informs targeted strategies and interventions and plays a pivotal role in fostering collaboration among stakeholders.
- We Listen to Understand: Community Health is a shared responsibility, so it is important to prioritize those needs and respond to gaps in a way that builds consensus around the results and lays the foundation for action. Collaboration and community buy-in are critical to the success of any initiatives we propose and are foremost important in developing those initiatives centered around community-identified needs.
- We Facilitate Discussions: We provide clear, well-cited, and easily deployable reports and supporting materials. Our comprehensive analysis allows us to gain an intimate understanding of each community’s challenges and aspirations, and our expertise allows us to facilitate conversations between community health experts, partners, and stakeholders. We understand who needs to be involved in the discussion, and we are prepared to address all necessary parties.
- Expertise-Driven Strategy Development: We bring a wealth of experience in CHNA and CHIPs by utilizing strategic planning to leverage that expertise to meticulously analyze community data and insights to develop comprehensive plans that prioritize the most pressing health needs.
- Tailored strategies for Community Health Improvement: We understand that each community faces unique challenges and opportunities. Therefore, we employ a flexible and analytical methodology that allows us to customize strategies to fit the specific needs and circumstances of the communities we serve.
- Community Health Improvement Plan: We collaborate with stakeholders to develop comprehensive plans addressing priority health issues identified through various community assessment care plans.
- Continuous Adaptation & Improvement: We recognize that community needs are dynamic and evolving. As such, we maintain a proactive approach, continuously monitoring and adapting our strategies to ensure they remain relevant and effective over time. This commitment to ongoing improvement enables us to stay responsive to the changing needs of the communities we serve.
- Empowering Positive Impact: Our approach is ultimately centered around empowering positive change within the communities we serve. By aligning our strategies with the community’s uniquely identified needs and aspirations, we aim to catalyze sustainable improvements in community health outcomes. It all starts with understanding where your community falls and where it wants to be.
- On-Going Support: Our adaptability allows us to provide our communities with ongoing support and assistance as needed. We are apprised of the latest community health standards and requirements, and our ongoing support services help you stay up to date as well.
- We are aligned with Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) standards & measures.
We meet your community where you are.
We are here to help you achieve your goals whether through training or full-service offerings.
FAQ
A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is a systematic evaluation that identifies a specific community or population’s health needs, challenges, and priorities within a defined geographical area. By gathering and analyzing data on demographics, health behaviors, access to healthcare services, and prevalent health conditions, a CHNA provides valuable insights into the health status of the community.
Through community engagement and collaboration with stakeholders, including community members, healthcare providers, and policymakers, a CHNA aims to develop targeted strategies and interventions to effectively address the identified health needs. Overall, a CHNA serves as a vital tool for guiding efforts to improve community health outcomes and enhance the well-being of the population it serves.
The purpose of a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is twofold: firstly, to comprehensively evaluate the health needs, concerns, and priorities of a specific community or population within a defined geographic area, and secondly, to serve as a cornerstone assessment for accreditation or reaccreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB).
Through the meticulous gathering and analysis of data on demographics, health behaviors, access to healthcare services, and prevalent health conditions, a CHNA provides critical insights into the health status of the community. This assessment informs targeted strategies and interventions to address identified health needs effectively and plays a pivotal role in fostering collaboration among stakeholders and ultimately improving community health outcomes.
A Community Health Assessment (CHA) is crucial because it enables health departments to comprehensively understand community health needs and develop targeted strategies to address them effectively. By fostering strategic collaboration, utilizing diverse data sources, and crafting thoughtful intervention plans, CHAs help prioritize services and resources, identify productive partnerships across sectors, and ultimately improve the health of the region’s population. Additionally, CHAs contribute to advancing health equity and satisfying accreditation standards, making them indispensable tools for community health planning and development.
To analyze trends and benchmarks, we utilize a variety of data sources to ensure a comprehensive understanding of community health dynamics. Demographic data, including race/ethnicity and disability, is sourced from reputable databases such as the American Community Survey, County Health Rankings, and mySidewalk. Social determinants of health, encompassing factors like income, education, health insurance, and healthcare resources, are gleaned from resources like County Health Rankings, Robert Wood Johnson, and Social Metrics. Additionally, we leverage health outcomes utilization data, information on healthy/unhealthy risk behaviors, and data from your Department of Health, as well as our partners and collaborators. This multifaceted approach to data collection allows us to paint a holistic picture of community health trends and inform evidence-based interventions effectively.
The MAPP Process Explained: Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) is an evidence-based planning tool designed to assist your health department with several key objectives, including Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) accreditation (initial or renewal), community health assessment, coalition building, and optimizing your collective health impact. The overarching goal of the MAPP 2.0 process is to achieve health equity, which unfolds through three distinct phases: Building the Community Health Improvement Foundation, Telling the Community Story, and Continuously Improving the Community.
In the second phase, “Telling the Community Story,” three assessments play pivotal roles: the Community Partner Assessment, the Community Status Assessment, and the Community Context Assessment. These assessments enable health departments to identify their region’s community health goals, forge diverse partnerships, and gain deeper insights into the historical factors contributing to health and social inequities within the community. Our assessments are meticulously crafted to uncover the root causes of inequities by collaborating with diverse partners and leveraging their unique assets. This approach ensures the development of targeted and feasible intervention plans aimed at fostering positive change. Additionally, Ascendant Healthcare Partners offers ongoing data analytics support throughout the CHNA process, providing continuous assistance to each health department.
A CHIP is a strategic document that guides collaborative efforts to address priority health issues within a community based on assessments of community health needs and assets. It provides an action plan based on key community health priorities.
Key steps in a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) include assessing community health needs, setting priorities, developing goals and strategies, implementing interventions, and monitoring progress and effectiveness.
The purpose is to guide coordinated efforts to improve community health, address priority issues, promote health equity, and achieve measurable improvements in health outcomes.