How should a hospital consider other existing assessments? In this video, Kelsey Anderson, Strategic Healthcare Analyst at Carnahan Group responds.

This is a requirement within the IRS 501(r)(3) guidelines. A hospital really should, as they conduct their own Community Health Needs Assessment, review the local county health improvement plan, state health improvement plan, and any other public health, community health assessments that have been recently completed.

It’s also important to try to leverage common community-based organizations assessments. United Way comes to mind, and there are many others who regularly publish very specific assessments related to medically underserved or lower-income folks. You should also take into account Community Health Needs Assessment for other local hospitals or hospital systems that may overlap or coincide with your defined community.

Lastly, a hospital could consider during primary data collection actually asking their key stakeholders to recommend other specific local assessment or improvement plans or strategic plans that may be relevant to the Community Health Needs Assessment.