title: Community Health Needs Assessment: Potential for Population Health Improvement.
abstract: Derived from various health care policies and initiatives, the concept of population health has been newly adopted by health care and medicine. In particular, it has been suggested that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provision that requires nonprofit hospitals to conduct a community health needs assessment (CHNA) and implement strategies to address health priorities has the potential to improve population health. A mixed methods study design was used to examine the potential for population health improvements to occur through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)-mandated nonprofit hospital CHNA and planning processes. Methods involved a 2-phased approach composed of (1) content analysis of 95 CHNA/implementation strategies reports and (2) interviews with key informants, consultants, and community stakeholders involved in CHNA and planning processes. Although this is a great opportunity for the nonprofit hospital assessment and planning processes to influence population health outcomes, the findings from the first 3-year assessment and planning cycle (2011-2013) suggest this is unlikely. As nonprofit hospitals begin the second 3-year assessment and planning cycle, this article offers recommendations to increase the potential for nonprofit hospitals to improve population health. These recommendations include clarifying the purpose of IRS CHNA regulations, engaging community stakeholders in collaborative assessment and planning, understanding disease etiology and identifying and addressing broader determinants of health, adopting a public health assessment and planning model, and emphasizing population health improvement. (Population Health Management 2016;19:178-186).
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Texas Medical Branch , Galveston, Texas. NOTE: At the time the manuscript was written, Dr. Pennel was with the Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Cara L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Pennel
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Health Promotion and Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center , College Station, Texas.
authors.forename: Kenneth R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: McLeroy
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Health Promotion and Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center , College Station, Texas.|3 Center for Community Health Development, School of Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center , College Station. Texas.
authors.forename: James N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Burdine
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University , College Station, Texas.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Matarrita-Cascante
authors.affiliation: 5 Educational Administration and Human Resource Development, Texas A&M University , College Station, Texas.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D018672:Community Health Planning; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D020380:Needs Assessment; D011634:Public Health; D036301:Qualitative Research; D014481:United States