News Releases

Key Health Priorities the Focus of CHNA Roundtable Meeting

The Center for Health Affairs hosted the second meeting of the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) Roundtable on Wednesday, June 10. The focus of the meeting was to understand the top health priorities that Northeast Ohio hospitals have identified through their CHNAs and how they relate to health priorities that local health departments have identified through their community health assessments (CHAs).

Toinette Parrilla, director, Cleveland Department of Public Health (CDPH), described how the CDPH has identified infant mortality, lead, data and mental health/substance abuse as top health priorities. Terry Allan, health commissioner, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, and Heidi Gullett, a physician who works closely with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and who holds dual roles as assistant professor at CWRU School of Medicine and Community Health and associate program director in public health/general preventive medicine, described the work of HIP-Cuyahoga and the importance of health equity when addressing health priorities.

An overview of the Health Policy Institute of Ohio’s All Hands on Deck: Navigating Partnerships in Population Health Planning, a forum on the role of hospitals’ and health departments’ role in population health planning, was provided to the group and included an overview of the findings from a study of hospital CHNAs and health department CHAs by Melanie Golembiewski, MD, Case Western Reserve University Family Residency Program.

For more information about the CHNA Roundtable or to learn more about The Center’s involvement in community health needs assessments, please contact Kirstin Craciun, MSW, MPP, director of community outreach, at 216.255.3616 or via email.