title: The proof's in the partnerships: Are Affordable Care Act and Local Health Department accreditation practices influencing collaborative partnerships in community health assessment and improvement planning?
abstract: The strengthened requirement for nonprofit hospitals to complete a community health needs assessment and implementation plan in the Affordable Care Act, concurrent with a new voluntary accreditation process for local health departments that requires collaborative community health assessments and community health improvement plans, have led to a resurgence of interest in assessment and improvement planning. This study provides baseline data that will help determine whether the Affordable Care Act and public health accreditation will result in more collaborative community assessment and community health improvement activity by describing trends in collaborative community health assessment and community health improvement plan activities. Data sources include the National Profile of Local Health Departments studies and a database of community health assessment, community health needs assessment, community health improvement plan, and other implementation planning reports from across the country. The study finds that collaborative community assessment activity is positively associated with population size, governance type, and local health department and coalition-led efforts.
authors.affiliation: Assessment and Planning (Ms Laymon), Research & Evaluation (Ms Leep), and Performance Improvement & Workforce Development (Ms Elligers), National Association of County & City Health Officials, Washington, District of Columbia; Department of Health Policy and Management, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro (Drs Shah and Kumar).; and Georgia Regents University, Augusta (Dr Kumar).
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Laymon
authors.forename: Gulzar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Carolyn J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Leep
authors.forename: Julia Joh
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Elligers
authors.forename: Vibha
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D019058:Community Networks / Q000592:standards; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006801:Humans; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011634:Public Health / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States