With the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2012, not for profit hospitals are required to complete a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) every three years. The process of completing an assessment and generating a report can be burdensome to any size hospital, but especially to a small, rural hospital with limited staff and resources. As a result, the Community Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky (CEDIK) created a process for Extension Specialists and staff to assist hospitals in Kentucky to complete this IRS requirement.

This year marks the third cycle of CHNA’s for hospitals and CEDIK staff completed reports for 26 hospitals. During the process, 857 in person contacts were made in Kentucky communities through steering committees, focus groups and key informant interviews. In addition, 8,387* community surveys were collected and analyzed to help identify the unmet health needs that need to be addressed. (*Note: Five Louisville hospitals and Owensboro Health provided health department survey results to CEDIK for analysis.)

After unmet health needs were identified and prioritized by local steering committees, each hospital created an implementation plan with specifics on how to address the needs over the next three years. The most common health needs that emerged across the majority of the hospitals: Substance Use Disorder (prevention and treatment), Tobacco use and Tobacco related diseases, Mental Health, and Obesity (including obesity related chronic diseases).

Each hospital board of directors reviewed the report results and voted to approve the assessment and implementation plan. CEDIK will continue to provide guidance as hospitals implement their plans and collect data to report their successes over the next three years. In addition, more hospital CHNA’s are planned for completion in 2019-2020.