Cook County North Shore Health has joined with four groups the last several months to create Duluth’s first ever collaborative Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA). A CHNA is a systematic examination of the health status indicators for a given population, used to identify key problems and assets.
The federal requirement for nonprofit hospitals to complete a CHNA every three years went into effect as part of the Affordable Care Act. St. Luke’s and Essentia Health completed separate CHNAs in 2013. “However, the federal government strongly encourages health care systems and public health to work together on needs assessments,” explains Jessica Stauber, St. Luke’s director of marketing and business planning. “We serve patients in the same community, so it makes great sense to work together to identify our community’s health needs and work together to address them.”
In Cook County, the biggest need identified is in mental health care.
“We work together with Sawtooth Mountain Clinic, the schools, Cook County Department of Public Health and Human Services, the Human Development Center and Grand Portage Public Health,” said North Shore Hospital Administrator Kimber Wraalstad.
Sawtooth Mountain Clinic has hired two people to work with the public on mental health issues. The hospital is also open 24/7 for patients needing help, said Wraalstad.
In Duluth, the needs identified are mental health, alcohol, drugs, and tobacco use, obesity, and socio-economic disparities based on race and neighborhood.
Required to complete a CHNA every five years, St. Louis County Public Health also sees the benefit of joining forces, along with Generations Health Care Initiatives, a Duluthbased nonprofit committed to improving the health of our community; the Carlton- Cook- Lake- St. Louis Community Health Board, the four-county governing authority for local public health; and Zeitgeist Center for Arts and Community, a Duluthbased nonprofit working for a connected, healthy community empowered to create and thrive. These five organizations make up the charter members of Bridging Health-Duluth.
Tony Cuneo, Cook County Public Health, and Human Services, says better health happens through collaboration. “To control health care costs and improve the health of people in our community, we need to act outside the walls of doctors’ offices and hospitals. Figuring out how we can make it easier to be healthy in our community isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s critical to our economic and environmental future.”
Members of this group and other healthcare leaders conducted the 2015 Bridge to Health survey in late 2015, with results released at a regional conference in April 2016. With the survey results in hand, Bridging Health Duluth followed up with focus groups to further understand what the community feels are the greatest health needs. Through the collaborative process, more than 500 community members shared what is working to make Duluth healthy – and what is not working. Themes emerged, including issues with mental health care and access to healthy food.
“We look at what needs are identified in each community then come up with a strategic plan to address those needs,” says Kayla Keigley, Essentia Health’s program manager of community health. “It’s a community driven process focused on collaboration among public health data, local surveys such as the Bridge to Health Survey, and community conversations.”
Bridging Health Duluth is currently working to develop an implementation plan, which outlines goals, priority audiences, strategies and potential partners for addressing each of the four areas of greatest need.
This project will be published on November 15, 2016.
Leave a Reply