Assessment and planning helped community partners distribute COVID-19 care kits, one of many coordinated health initiatives.
GOAL:
A HEALTHIER COMMUNITY A COUNTYWIDE INITIATIVE WORKS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND AND MEET LOCAL NEEDS.
H
ospitals strive to improve health not just for individuals but for entire communities. But what are the vital signs of a community, how do you read them and what can you do to improve them? These questions are at the heart of a process that takes place every three years at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH). The hospital, in conjunction with Saint Peter’s University Hospital and the Healthier Middlesex Consortium of more than 60 community partners, implements a community health needs assessment and community health improvement plan. The effort launched again in 2022. Assessments and improvement plans fulfill a mandate required by the Affordable Care Act and help guide strategic planning for health and related services throughout Middlesex County. “First you change knowledge and
awareness of problems,” says Camilla Comer-Carruthers, MPH, RWJUH Manager of Community Health. “Then you try to change behaviors associated with problems.”
ACTING ON DATA
Assessments start by gathering information for a comprehensive report from key sources including: • Surveys in multiple languages done in diverse communities throughout Middlesex County to gain insight into health needs. • Hospital data that shed light on factors such as who uses the hospital, what services are most in demand and what characterizes patients. • Secondary data from sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state databases for biggerpicture trends. • Focus groups to get input from populations that may have been
underrepresented in surveys. • Community outreach including interviews with people involved with community partners. “After all this input, we ask: ‘Based on the data, are there evidence-based strategies we can implement to address the needs we see?’” Comer-Carruthers says. “Working with our community partners, we prioritize the greatest needs, identify those that are most feasible to address and develop an improvement plan based on what we’ve identified.” “These assessments and improvement plans are a driver for community partners throughout Middlesex County to connect and create important initiatives that help our local populations,” says Robert LaForgia, MPH, Coordinator, Healthier Middlesex Consortium. Recent examples include increasing education on problems such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and sexually transmitted infections, including through public resources such as libraries; improving maternal health; implementing training on mental health; providing information on food and transportation resources; and bringing health programming to children at summer camp. “We were also able to pivot and use hospital data to combat COVID-19,” LaForgia says. Those efforts included targeted testing and distribution of care kits containing items such as masks and hand sanitizer. “By continuing to work together and keeping the community engaged, we’ll eventually see long-term positive outcomes,” says Comer-Carruthers. “It doesn’t happen overnight or even in three years. It takes time to turn the tide, but we continually have a chance to implement strategies to go in the right direction.”
To learn more about community needs assessments at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, visit www.rwjbh.org/rwj-university-hospital-new-brunswick/about/community-health-needs-assessment.
Healthy Together
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