A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is a systematic, data-driven approach to determining the health status, behaviors and needs residents. Subsequently, this information may be used to inform decisions and guide efforts to improve community health and wellness.
A Community Health Needs Assessment provides information so that communities may identify issues of greatest concern and decide to commit resources to those areas, thereby making the greatest possible impact on community health status.
The following “areas of opportunity” represent the significant health needs of the community, based on the information gathered through this Community Health Needs Assessment and the guidelines set forth in Healthy People 2020. From these data, opportunities for health improvement exist in the area with regard to the following health issues (see also the summary tables presented in the following section).
The Areas of Opportunity were determined after consideration of various criteria, including: standing in comparison with benchmark data (particularly national data); the preponderance of significant findings within topic areas; the magnitude of the issue in terms of the number of persons affected; and the potential health impact of a given issue.