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We Call This A Community Health Needs Assessment ( Chna )

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The 1988 Institute of Medicine (as cited by Rabarison, Timsina, & Mays, 2015) states that “every public health agency regularly and systematically [collect, assemble, analyze, and make] available information on the health of the community, including statistics on health status, community health needs, and epidemiologic and other studies of health problems.” Today, we call this a community health needs assessment (CHNA). This is based on data collection, analysis, a list of health needs, and issues (Reed & Fleming, 2014). This systematic process helps to determine the health needs of a community and to implement plans for addressing these needs. Furthermore, communities will be given the opportunity to understand the health status of their community, learn the changes their fellow residents would like to see happen, what key health issues are already being addressed, and determine any barriers (Reed & Fleming, 2014).
For LHD facilities to received accreditation, state laws require CHNAs to be conducted while federal laws require for federally qualified health centers and nonprofit hospitals to conduct CHNAs (Alfano-Sobsey, Ledford, Decosimo, & Horney, 2014). Often times, facilities will go beyond their walls and collaborate with other facilities to address the health needs of the community. This will also enable them to establish additional resources and perhaps funding for new actions. The purpose of this paper is to gain a clearer picture on CHNAs utilized on both a state

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