Healthcare Strategic Growth Blog

Connecting Your Members with the Right CHNA Partner 

By Lee Ann Lambdin and Megan Reeves

A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) identifies a community’s most significant health issues and needs through systematic data collection and analysis. Every three years, non-profit hospitals are required to submit a CHNA report and adopt an implementation plan to address the identified needs so they can maintain their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt or “charitable” status.

As 2022 quickly approaches, many of your member hospitals will be due to complete their new CHNA. In this post, we’ll discuss the ways you can help your members prepare for and navigate the CHNA process, including:

• Ensuring your members are clear on what they must do to stay federally compliant
• Finding ways to promote the real value that can be gained from a CHNA (beyond compliance)
• Offering resources to members who need help executing their CHNA 

The CHNA process may take several months and resources to complete, so now is the time for your member hospitals to be thinking about their 2022 CHNAs. Keep reading to learn how you can help.

Key Learnings from our Conversations with Hospital Associations

By Megan Reeves 

Given our history serving the nation's top healthcare organizations, assisting them in processing data and using it to make growth decisions, we have unparalleled insight into the data needs of hospitals of all shapes and sizes. We know what matters to end-users of the data collection process and we’re able to apply our knowledge to the process as a whole to make it easier, more efficient, and with an output that is better for strategic decision making.  

In an effort to sharpen our understanding of state association needs and the state data aggregation process, we spent time connecting with associations across the nation. We wanted to learn more about the challenges they’re facing, and how we can better support their work. 

What we heard in these conversations reinforced our long-standing understanding that state data is complex, and aggregation is challenging, with requirements differing by state. 

The following are learnings we gleaned from these discussions, which covered a multitude of topics including partnerships, data types, release schedules, challenges facing members, and hopes for the future of hospital associations. We hope the insights gathered here highlight the hard work already being done, and some key opportunities for optimizing data in ways that would benefit both associations and their members.

Why This Relationship is Critical for the Success of Both Organizations

By Megan Reeves

Most hospital associations identify as the principal advocate for their respective state's hospitals and healthcare systems. While they exist to serve and support, their essential value is sometimes overlooked or taken for granted. In this post, we’ll cover some of the top reasons hospitals need their state associations and how this partnership can be crucial to growth. We’ll also touch on why hospitals are critical to the associations as well. It’s a symbiotic relationship, and its value increases the more each partner invests in the other.

Tips for Supporting and Encouraging Providers and Members

By Megan Reeves

Hospitals are looking to their state associations for help now possibly more than ever. They need reassurance as they navigate uncertainty about the future and the impact of COVID-19. They’re anxious to respond to changing legislation. They’re concerned with whether or not they’re equipped to sustain their current staff and grow in the future.

In this post, we’re highlighting the many ways we’ve seen hospital associations step up and support their hospitals in meaningful ways. We wanted to shed light on the work being done and offer inspiration to associations looking for fresh ways to provide value.

The Benefits to Individual Hospitals and the Collective Network

By Chris Graff and Megan Reeves 

A seamless data aggregation process is a priority for any hospital association or state health department interested in equipping their members with reliable market data. The submission, validation, and approval of member facilities’ data should happen effortlessly behind the scenes. Yet for many associations, this process is anything but smooth.

The right data aggregation tool and partner will facilitate a better process, allowing associations to more effectively and efficiently provide their member hospitals with the data they need. In this post, we’ll discuss why the right tool or partner is critical for the overall improvement of healthcare data, as well as for individual hospitals that benefit from having access to more reliable data.