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This week, we’re wrapping up our month-long series on our values here at AscentHealth Consulting. In previous weeks, we’ve discussed our first value: Research is the basis for all good decision making and strategy (See post). And our second value: Every community is unique and has opportunities to become a much healthier place . Prevention is a core value at AscentHealth. Photo by Taber Andrew...

Your community is like no other and has innumerable opportunities to improve the health of its residents.Image by Mattinbgn (Own work) , via Wikimedia CommonsThis month, we want our readers to get to know our company a little better. To help with this, we’re focusing on the three core values that led us to start AscentHealth Consulting: 1. Research is the basis for all good decision making and...

A community health needs assessment should always start with good data.Image by Linkfluence As you might remember from our previous blog post, we’re focusing on AscentHealth Consulting’s three main values this month: 1. Research is the basis for all good decision making and strategy. 2. Every community is unique and has opportunities to become a much healthier place. 3. Prevention is the most...

One of our shared values is that every community is unique. Photo by Duane Brown Many people know how important AscentHealth Consulting is to Matt and me, but we often get asked why community health needs assessments (CHNAs) are such an important part of the puzzle of improving community health. We founded AscentHealth and chose to focus our business around community health needs assessments...

Improving the health of a community is much like tending a garden with very long rows of corn.Thanks to Farmacy for this image. Part I – Garden as Metaphor Series … Growing things fascinates me. Put a seed in the ground, give it a little water, a little sun and voila! You (usually) get a plant that offers great value – well beyond the small seed that was planted. Being raised on a...

Image by Cory Doctorow of gruntzooki Nonprofit hospitals, United Ways, community foundations and public health departments are just a few of the groups looking at what appears to be a 10,000-piece puzzle that must be solved before the true picture of a healthy community emerges. Many groups start with the straight-edge pieces – what everyone thinks are the obvious issues — but how do you...

A Community Health Needs Assessment is the tool that leads your healthcare organization to make decisions based on facts. If you want to accomplish something and propel your organization forward, you have to envision it. Granted, this isn’t news to anyone reading this blog. After all, most people interested in healthcare consulting services know what they need, right? But let’s...

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...