Assessing community health needs in the PPACA era: An integrated system's approach from Kaiser Permanente community benefit

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires all nonprofit hospitals to conduct a community health needs assessment (CHNA) every three years and adopt an implementation strategy to meet the identified needs. While California-based nonprofit hospitals have had to comply with a similar State requirement to conduct needs assessments, for most hospitals this will be a massive new undertaking. Hospitals will need to define their community served, develop processes for gathering and interpreting data, and apply criteria for prioritizing and addressing community health needs. This provides an important opportunity for nonprofit hospitals to collaborate with community residents, public health partners and other hospitals. In order to meet the new ACA requirements, Kaiser Permanente has partnered with public health entities, IP3, and many nonprofit, academic, and community-based groups to develop CHNA.org/kp, a new tool created to facilitate a process that builds on shared community health assessment goals and takes advantage of opportunities for collaboration and collective impact. CHNA.org/kp is a free web-based GIS mapping platform designed to assist KFH hospitals as well as our community partners including, non-profit organizations, health departments and other organizations seeking to better understand the needs and assets of their communities—to make measurable improvements in community health and well-being. The tools and resources on this site are being used to examine the social determinants of health, assess the current health status of our communities, and identify the resources that exist in communities, to foster collaborative approaches to improve community health.