Hospital seeking input about community's health
Having a strong understanding of the health issues facing a community is imperative for health providers to best service those needs.
To meet that objective, Owensboro Health Regional Hospital has launched its Community Health Needs Assessment survey, which provides every resident of Daviess County an opportunity to weigh in on the health needs of the county.
"We want to be able to give a voice to all community citizens, not just those in particular sectors of the community," said Debbie Zuerner, director of community engagement at Owensboro Health. "It's critically important that we hear from everyone, not only about their lived experiences with health issues, but what they perceive to be the most critical health issues in our community, because it's only by hearing from our community citizens that we really can ascertain what they're thinking, in terms of what they believe the health issues are, what their concerns are.
"We have to hear their voices, because those are things you don't want to leave to assumption."
OHRH, like all nonprofit hospitals, is required to do a community health needs assessment every three years. The hospital then has to create an implementation strategy as to how it's going to address priority areas.
But the hospital's survey is part of a bigger health needs assessment.
"We have a community health committee, and that committee is made up of other organizations and entities that give us guidance and advise us, because many of those entities also have to do assessments of some sort, and that's due to accreditation or certification," Zuerner said. "We all come together and talk about how we can promote this survey. And after survey is completed, we review the results, and it's up to that committee to prioritize those health needs that are presented by the community."
While the survey is critical to the overall assessments, there are other ways the community health committee gathers information to make decisions.
"You also have to look at the analysis of secondary data, for example," Zuerner said. "We work with the University of Kentucky's Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, and they conduct the community health needs assessment work. The survey is part of that. Focus groups are part of that. Primary interviews are part of that, and then an analysis of secondary data.
"We come together with the community health committee, and we then name those priority health issues that are most prevalent in Owensboro-Daviess County."
The survey includes questions related directly to a person's health, but it also includes broader questions about facets that can impact a community's health.
"There are also social determinants of health that are considered in this, and we do ask a lot of questions about that — transportation, housing, issues related to education and poverty, and food insecurity," Zuerner said. "These are social drivers of health. They are those environmental things that are proven to be significant drivers of one's health outcome. If you have COPD and live in a home without air conditioning or your transportation is limited, those types of things, they're going to drive your health outcome very often.
"So as a community, when we see those kinds of things surfacing, and the community is in agreement that this is is the issue, then we come together as a community. The hospital can't do all of these things ourselves. Their responses help drive strategies for all of our entities in Owensboro-Daviess County. That's why their voices are so important."
The community health assessment also greatly impacts where money is spent.
"We have a community health investment grant program, and one of the requirements in that program is that an entity organization must be addressing a named priority health need, because you have to start getting a laser focus on the most prevalent health issues in your community," said Zuerner, who noted how the process worked three years ago and the issues were addressed. "We take that survey, we take interviews, there are focus groups, and that formulates into those priority health areas which we've made investments, and so has the community, and other entities and organizations have made investments in those areas, such as mental health, substance abuse.
"It really can drive decisions."
Zuerner said the survey is anonymous and only takes a few minutes to complete. She said participation from the community was excellent three years ago, and she anticipates that repeating.
"It's really, really simple, and there are questions that do a nice job of gauging community perception," she said. "There are questions on there about what their families may have experienced in terms of health issues. And there are times when someone will add an open-ended comment.
"But this is not about any one health organization; not about the health department or RiverValley or Owensboro Health, this is about community health issues, and I think it does a nice job of capturing that."
