New Community Health Assessment and Implementation Strategies Guide Community Benefit Programming
For Immediate Release
Contact: Johnny Hagerman
Ph: 410-772-6661
johnny.hagerman@medstar.net
Columbia, MD – July 10, 2012 – MedStar Health published its first system-wide Community Health Assessment (CHA) that allowed hospital leaders and community stakeholders to participate in a structured process to better understand and respond to the health needs of underserved communities.
Community engagement was a cornerstone of each hospital’s CHA. Each hospital’s assessment was led by an advisory task force (ATF), comprised of a diverse group of grassroots activists, community residents, faith-based leaders, hospital representatives and public health leaders. ATF members reviewed quantitative and qualitative data, and provided recommendations for hospitals’ health priorities, specifically as they related to the needs of underserved and low-income communities. Priorities were based on community need as determined by quantitative data and community input, as well as on hospital expertise, strengths of existing programming and partnerships, and alignment with national, state and local health goals.
Three-year implementation strategies with measurable objectives were developed for each hospital’s community benefit service area - a specific community or target population of focus.
“The implementation strategies serve as a roadmap for how community benefit resources will be allocated and deployed. Most importantly, we will be able to measure our contribution to improving the health of underserved and vulnerable populations in the region,” said Christopher J. King, assistant vice president of Community Health.
In addition to the assessments and implementation strategies, MedStar Health partnered with the Healthy Communities Institute to launch a web-based platform providing access to more than 100 health indicators. Data exist for counties within the MedStar region. Features include a dashboard methodology that allows for local comparisons to other counties as well as comparisons to Healthy People 2020 goals. A disparities dashboard can be used to examine differences in health status based on race/ethnicity, age and gender. The site also contains a repository of nationally recognized evidence-based and promising practices that may be tailored and replicated in other communities. Information is provided as a community service and can be accessed by anyone seeking community health data.
View the full needs assessments and implementation strategies for all of the MedStar Health hospitals at: http://www.medstarhealth.org/CommunityBenefit
About MedStar Health: As the largest healthcare provider in Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region, MedStar Health’s nine hospitals, MedStar Health Research Institute and 20 other health-related organizations are recognized regionally and nationally for excellence in medical care. MedStar combines the best aspects of academic medicine, research, innovation and treatments with a complete spectrum of clinical services to advance patient care. MedStar has one of the largest graduate medical education programs in the country, training more than 1,100 medical residents annually and is the clinical research partner of Georgetown University. As a $4 billion, not-for-profit, regional healthcare system based in Columbia, MD, MedStar is one of the largest employers in the region. Our 27,000 associates, including more than 6,700 nurses and 5,600 affiliated physicians, support MedStar’s patient-first philosophy that combines care, compassion and clinical excellence with an emphasis on customer service. Visit us at medstarhealth.org.