When the Affordable Care Act created a new requirement for Community Health Needs Assessments, the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network (ICAHN) quickly recognized the need for a vehicle that would allow critical access and other rural hospitals to develop accurate and genuinely useful assessments in a cost effective manner. In 2010, a consultant with a broad background well-suited to this task was retained to work with ICAHN staff to develop the resources necessary to support members in addressing their CHNA needs. Since 2011, ICAHN has helped a number of hospitals throughout Illinois with ready-to-publish Community Health Needs Assessments and Implementation Strategies.
ICAHN has kept current with an array of developing health information resources and incorporates the most relevant data sources and analysis tools into its projects. Primary data is collected from each community in a manner that best suits the unique local circumstances and assures that ICAHN is hearing fully the essential voices of the community that must be considered under the regulations. The facilitated Implementation Strategy process provides a logic driven response to identified community health needs that shares responsibilities among the hospital and its partners in the health care profession and local community.
With the experience gained facilitating needs assessments and implementation strategies, we know that all Community Health Needs Assessments have potential for beneficial use by hospitals well beyond satisfying federal reporting requirements, including the capacity to serve as rich information and local data sources for new endeavors, both internal and external.
ICAHN's community health needs assessments and implementation strategies are devoted to providing hospitals with the information they need to fully identify the broad health needs of their communities, assuring their efforts are best aligned in every way reasonably possible to the needs of those they serve.
The Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network is a not-for-profit network of 53 small and rural Illinois hospitals dedicated to strengthening the operations of its member hospitals through education, training and collaboration. The organization is mainly comprised of Illinois hospitals who have earned critical access hospital designation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. ICAHN is recognized nationally for its work with rural health care and administers several state, federal, and private health care programs. The ICAHN office is located in Princeton, IL and serves critical access hospitals across Illinois.
ICAHN has kept current with an array of developing health information resources and incorporates the most relevant data sources and analysis tools into its projects. Primary data is collected from each community in a manner that best suits the unique local circumstances and assures that ICAHN is hearing fully the essential voices of the community that must be considered under the regulations. The facilitated Implementation Strategy process provides a logic driven response to identified community health needs that shares responsibilities among the hospital and its partners in the health care profession and local community.
With the experience gained facilitating needs assessments and implementation strategies, we know that all Community Health Needs Assessments have potential for beneficial use by hospitals well beyond satisfying federal reporting requirements, including the capacity to serve as rich information and local data sources for new endeavors, both internal and external.
ICAHN's community health needs assessments and implementation strategies are devoted to providing hospitals with the information they need to fully identify the broad health needs of their communities, assuring their efforts are best aligned in every way reasonably possible to the needs of those they serve.
The Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network is a not-for-profit network of 53 small and rural Illinois hospitals dedicated to strengthening the operations of its member hospitals through education, training and collaboration. The organization is mainly comprised of Illinois hospitals who have earned critical access hospital designation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. ICAHN is recognized nationally for its work with rural health care and administers several state, federal, and private health care programs. The ICAHN office is located in Princeton, IL and serves critical access hospitals across Illinois.