Community Health Needs Assessment Summary
Provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) require charitable hospitals to conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and adopt an Implementation Plan to meet the needs identified through the CHNA. The CHNA is a systematic process involving the community to identify and analyze community health needs as well as community assets and resources in order to plan and act upon priority community health needs. This assessment process results in a CHNA Report which is used to plan, implement, and evaluate Community Benefit activities. Once the CHNA Report is completed, a set of implementation strategies is developed based on the evidence and assets and resources identified in the CHNA process.
Every three years, the affiliated hospitals of Hospital Sisters Health System are required to conduct a CHNA and to adopt an Implementation Plan by an authorized body of the hospital in the same taxable year, and make the report widely available to the public.
To comply with these requirements, HSHS affiliated hospitals led a collaborative approach in conducting their CHNAs and adopting an Implementation Plan in FY2022 in partnership with representatives from the community including other area hospitals, community organizations, area schools, local law enforcement, departments of public health and the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network to name a few.
Upon completion of the CHNA, each hospital developed a set of implementation strategies and adopted an Implementation Plan to address priority community health needs surfaced in the CHNA process. Data collected throughout the assessment process was supplemented with, but not limited to community asset reviews, quantitative data, qualitative data gathered through CHNA Steering Committees with broad community representation, focus groups, local leader input, town hall meetings, and engagement sessions.