News Releases

Regional Health Needs Assessment Project Gaining Steam

Hospitals routinely consider the healthcare needs of their communities as they are making decisions about their facilities and their service offerings. Now, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has taken the step of requiring hospitals to evaluate community health needs every three years in collaboration with their public health departments in order to maintain 501(c)3 status.
To help Northeast Ohio hospitals meet this new requirement, in fall 2010, The Center brought together health commissioners and their representatives from nine Northeast Ohio counties to discuss the need for a regional approach in conducting health needs assessments.  Many at the table expressed interest in moving forward with a regional community needs assessment coordinated by The Center.

This initiative has a number of advantages for Northeast Ohio hospitals.  First, it allows each county, along with its hospitals and other community stakeholders, to design questions to address specific community concerns. Second, though there is flexibility in selecting assessment questions specific to each county, overlap of a set of uniform questions across counties will allow researchers on the project to roll the data into a regional report. In addition, the rigorous methodology adopted by The Center's health needs assessment vendor, the Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio, ensures the data are reliable and accurate.

So far, Departments of Health from four counties - Lorain, Ashtabula, Geauga and Medina - have decided to begin their participation in The Center's regional initiative in 2011. Other counties have expressed interest in beginning either later in the year or within the next few years.