News Releases

Community Health Assessments in Cuyahoga County: Full Steam Ahead

There has been a lot of attention in Cuyahoga County focused on creating better linkages between clinical care and public health - work that was born out of HIP-Cuyahoga’s efforts to achieve a greater state of health for all county residents. The key strategy to achieve this has centered on getting hospitals and health departments in Cuyahoga County to work collaboratively on their community health assessments, rather than separately as they have historically been conducted.

2018 Cuyahoga County Health Assessment Collaboration

An exciting collaboration between the Cleveland Department of Public Health, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and University Hospitals is well underway as these organizations have committed to conducting a joint Cuyahoga County Health Assessment in 2018. Co-led by HIP-Cuyahoga and The Center for Health Affairs, the 2018 Cuyahoga County Health Assessment enables the Cleveland Department of Public Health, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and University Hospitals to partner and collaborate on a smaller scale prior to conducting a more robust and comprehensive community health assessment in 2019.

2019 Cuyahoga County Community Health Planning Underway

Why is another community health assessment being conducted in 2019? The more robust health assessment completed in 2019 will allow the Cleveland Department of Public Health, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and University Hospitals to align their health planning efforts with additional Cuyahoga County hospitals that are not required to report until 2019. The push to align the community health planning timelines for public health stakeholders and hospitals stems from guidance released by the Ohio Department of Health. This guidance encourages hospitals and public health departments to partner on assessments and corresponding plans and to align their population health planning efforts with those of the state by 2020. Meetings co-led by HIP-Cuyahoga and The Center for Health Affairs have been underway to discuss how Cuyahoga County hospitals and public health departments might collaborate on community health assessments in 2019.

Opportunities for Uniform Data Approaches in the Region Explored

Given the large regional footprint of many local health systems, there has been interest in determining if there’s a uniform approach to gathering primary data for the region that would generate efficiencies and cost savings for Northeast Ohio hospitals and public health stakeholders as they develop their community health assessments. A meeting held on April 26, 2018, brought together hospital community health leaders and health commissioners from a nine-county region in Northeast Ohio for a preliminary discussion.

For more on community health assessments and planning efforts, contact us.