Area organizations are working together in partnership to help improve the health of their communities, and the region.
Partnering organizations include: Gundersen Boscobel Area Hospital and Clinics, Grant Regional Health Center, Crossing Rivers Health, Grant and Crawford County UW Extension, Aging and Disability Resource Centers, and Grant and Crawford County Health Departments. The group conducted a community health needs assessment (CHNA) and has recently published the completed report on each of the area hospital websites.
These organizations were proud to collaborate and combine resources to conduct the assessment in their surrounding communities. The assessment is completed every three years in compliance with IRS 501(r) guidelines to understand the broad healthcare needs of our communities. Through this process, the group invites input from the communities they serve as well as other community stakeholders actively working to improve the health and quality of life of the community. The goal is to gain a better understanding of our communities’ needs and to make decisions to impact the most pressing issues.
The report outlines the process of conducting the health needs assessment by collecting and analyzing data and soliciting community input within their service areas. The results will be used to develop strategies to address the prioritized needs, with the goal of contributing to improvements in the communities’ overall health. The action plan will be developed and implemented over the next three years.
Assessing health needs has been and remains an important component in the mission of hospitals and county health departments. All partners involved in this CHNA process agree their organizations share a common vision of improving health in their communities. Each participating organization has different resources and works with a different set of specific community attributes. Though the community health needs identified in this report are shared throughout the counties served, committee partners may prioritize them and address them differently in subsequent action plans.
Through action planning, committee partners may choose to collaborate further and combine resources to address a specific need. Each hospital will set their own priorities, determine their own level of urgency associated with each need, evaluate their own communities’ strengths and weaknesses and readiness, consider additional potential community partners, and determine how best to utilize their own existing and future resources to impact these identified issues.
For a complete review of the Community Health Needs Assessment report, you can go to the any of the following hospital websites.
Gundersen Boscobel Area Hospital and Clinics: www.gundersenhealth.org/boscobel/
Grant Regional Health Center: www.grantregional.com
Crossing Rivers Health: www.crossingrivers.org
For more information or to request a copy of the report, please contact any of the following:
Gundersen Boscobel Area Hospital and Clinics: Natalie Tollefson – [email protected]
Grant Regional Health Center: Rochelle Williams – [email protected]
Crossing Rivers Health: Sasha Dull – [email protected]