CHNA

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Posted by: Nickie Fickel, Manager of Community Health

Date: December 16, 2014 10:54 AM

We are planning for our next CHNA. I was wondering if any of you have been using Healthy Communities Institute to meet the IRS requirements. If so, can you please give me your opinion on pros and cons of the software system? As well as if you utilize the standalone version or embedded version.
I would also like to know the following……
• do you contract out to write the written report or you do this yourself
• how you meet the requirements of the key informant interviews
• has anyone conducted telephone surveys in the past and now using HCI? How do you compare your data from previous years?
• pros and cons of telephone surveys and secondary data vs just secondary data
Please share anything else you think would be helpful!! Thanks!!
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Response: Carrie McLeod, Sanford Health
Date: December 16, 2014 11:16 AM
Nickie,
We write our own report.
In the past we did phone interviews and found it extremely time consuming. During our 2013 process we invited over 300 key stakeholders to a breakfast meeting where we conducted our key informant interviews. We started the morning with a brief overview of the task before us and described the new regs. We then asked each attendee to complete the same survey tool that we sent in a random mailing as a generalizable survey. It only took 10 minutes to conduct and collect the survey. We then moved into our focused questions with facilitated discussion at each table.
This was a very good experience and our stakeholders appreciated the conversations.
Best wishes to you as you move forward with this work.
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Response: Laura Sessum, SRHS

Date: December 16, 2014 11:50 AM

We have the HCI embedded platform, and are using the dashboard indicators for data collection. We supplement with other secondary data where available. Their new CHNA tool is fantastic—makes it much easier to digest and know which step to take next.
For our 2012 CHNA, we conducted key informant interviews via telephone and held a community advisory group meeting with representatives from over 30 local not-for-profit organizations. For both the interviews and the advisory group we had a structured list of open-ended questions. We spoke with agency representatives, school counselors, school nurses, mental health professionals, physicians, business leaders, pastors, etc. For every person we spoke to, we always asked who else they recommended that we speak to, which provided many leads. We also contracted to have two focus groups conducted for the low income and minority populations, as well as conducted an internet survey on our website, and emailed it out to all business, faith-based, medical and dental contacts. We also printed it and distributed to local free health clinics and several health fairs to get input from the general public.
We found that the focus groups provided great sound bites for our report, e.g., “Doesn’t matter what you eat, if diabetes is in your blood then you’ll just get it.” And the key informant interviews provided us with a better understanding of why the data looks like it does. The needs were greater than we realized. I’d say the surveys basically just reflected the data and the interviews, so they served as further evidence, but we didn’t glean any new info from them.
With the exception of the HCI data platform and the focus groups, we did all the work ourselves, ONLY due to budget constraints. I can’t speak highly enough of HCI as a company and their staff. They are a joy to work with, and never cease to impress with their knowledge, quick responses, and attention to detail. (I am not paid to say this!) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Response: Sandra Mortensen, Community Health Improvement
Date: December 16, 2014 1:41 PM
Nickie – three of our care sites in Montana used PRC, Inc (Professional Research Consultants) and they have a dashboard. I thought they did an excellent job for our hospitals – including one which is a critical access hospital. St. Vincent in Billings, MT used them and to see what they did, go to https://www.svh-mt.org/about-us/commitment-to-our-community/.
And click on the link You can also access an interactive web version of the 2014 CHNA report at:
http://yellowstonecounty.healthforecast.net/ Login: Yellowstone | Password: health
to see their dashboard.
In Colorado, our 4 hospitals will be working with their local public health agencies who use HCI dashboards. Another very good organization doing much to promote healthy communities.
Feel free to contact me directly if you want to chat about how its working for SCL Health.

Response: Eileen L. Barsi, Dignity Health
Date: December 16, 2014 7:47 PM
Hi Nicki,
Several of our hospitals are using the HCI platform in collaboration with other partners in their respective communities and they are most pleased with the platform. It has saved them time in data collection and analysis and also includes best and promising practices to inform strategy to address the needs. It is also current information.
Another site you may want to consider is the Community Commons.org website and the recently enhanced chna.org application within that site. The Centers for Disease Control has worked diligently to update the chna.org site to provide hospitals with comprehensive secondary data. We advise that the secondary quantitative data is available and that investments can then be made in the primary qualitative data collection processes. So often the CHNA doesn’t change dramatically from assessment to assessment, but the primary data collection process can allow you the opportunity to narrow the focus of an assessment and extend the reach to get at those persistent health problems.
Key informant interviews are done either by phone, survey or by hosted forums. And with respect to the reports, the chna.org site provides you with a full report you can print to use but the summary documents and implementation strategies are unique to each of our hospitals and each complete their own. We have, however, provided them with a template for uniformity in reporting. There is a sample on the Catholic Health Association website in the community benefit section. http://www.chausa.org/docs/default-source/general-files/cha_modelcommneedsassessment-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=0
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