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If you work for a nonprofit hospital organization, you are no doubt aware of a section in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requiring your organization to conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA). There are a couple of ways to think about your CHNA: either as a compliance burden or as a valuable tool for strengthening connections to your market and positioning your organization for the...

Your needs assessment will be set for success when you choose the right team to start the process.Photo: Jean-Michel BAUD You’ve done it. You’ve convinced the people you need to convince that it’s time for a Community Health Assessment process. Someone is going to invest in the project—maybe the taxpayers, maybe hospitals, maybe the local philanthropic foundation—but someone, somewhere agrees...

Your first mission, should you chose to accept it, is to cultivate and grow your own heroes. We’re going to start at the start of things. If you are considering a strategic process for a Community Health Needs Assessment, there has to be a place to begin the journey. And it’s not where you think. No, it’s not with the statistician. Not the focus group. Not the committee meeting. It’s earlier...

CDC/ Mary Hilpertshauser If we read Facebook and news outlets, we see lots of opinions on different topics: vaccine dangers to cancer treatments to medical marijuana to food-borne illnesses. So many people with so many opinions and it’s all out there for consumption. Our collective liberties and freedoms allow these expressions (as well they should), but do we ever stop to consider the...

I get this question from friends and associates recently: “what is your consulting firm about, anyway?” Valid question, and one that begins with a declarative statement: we want to help communities be data-driven when making decisions about health care.  For some people, that might sound like a dull endeavor.  Graphs, trends, surveys, and reports don’t typically excite the senses.  Data, after...