Community Health Needs Assessments

What is a CHNA?

A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is a report that helps hospitals and insurers describe the needs in their service area and target their resources for community benefit. CHNAs also help community organizations make plans and raise funds to address residents’ needs. 

Under the Affordable Care Act, non-profit hospitals and insurance companies are required to research health needs and demonstrate how they are responding to these needs every three years. Check out the latest CHNAs.

From the outset, Western Massachusetts has been uniquely collaborative in the way we conduct our CHNAs. Seven nonprofit hospitals and one nonprofit health insurer formed a coalition to complete our research cooperatively. Currently, the Coalition of Western Massachusetts Hospitals/Insurer is a partnership between:

• Baystate Medical Center
• Baystate Franklin Medical Center
• Baystate Noble Hospital
• Baystate Wing Hospital
• Berkshire Health Systems
• Cooley Dickinson Hospital (a member of Mass General Brigham)
• Mercy Medical Center (a member of Trinity Health of New England)
• Health New England
• Holyoke Health Center (participates in the Coalition and conducts its own CHNA)
  
  

Every three years, a Regional Advisory Council (RAC) is formed to guide the CHNA process. Typically it includes the Coalition, the consultant team of researchers, representatives from community-based organizations and service providers, and resident leaders.

The Public Health Institute of Western MA is the lead consultant working with Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, Collaborative for Educational Services, and the Franklin Regional Council of Governments to implement the 2025 Community Health Needs Assessments for the Coalition of Western Massachusetts Hospitals/Insurer. PHIWM also led the 2022, 2019, and 2016 Community Health Needs Assessments.

Research for CHNAs involves gathering a lot of varied data and combining it to tell the story of well-being in Western MA for each hospital’s service area.

We gather health outcome data such as heart disease, asthma, and birth outcomes from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and other sources. We collect information on health behaviors, such as smoking, exercise, and other behaviors. We include information on the social factors that affect health, such as the ability to afford housing and have a job. We gather many of the reports and surveys that organizations and agencies throughout Western MA have published in the last 3 years. We also collect information directly from people who live, work, and play in Western MA in the form of focus groups, key informant interviews, and other methods such as community chats. Once we gather all of this information, we create a story with the CHNA report and hold Community Forums to get feedback. 

The CHNAs are yours – the research and findings reflect the community and are for you to use. 
Priorities in the CHNAs guide grantmaking by hospitals and Health New England, strategic directions, and countywide Community Health Improvement Plans. Your organizations, agencies, or businesses can use the findings in the CHNA to apply for local, state, and national grants and guide your strategic and program planning. 

For example, in 2022 the Coalition of Western Massachusetts Hospitals/Insurer chose a regional focus area – youth mental health: Youth Mental Health in Western MA. The extensive data collected for this focus area has been used to inform strategies related to youth mental health in our region, such as the Youth Mental Health Roadmap.



If you use the CHNA in other ways we would love to know.

The best way to keep up to date with the CHNA, and the subsequent Community Health Improvement Plans and actions in your community, is to like the CHNA on Facebook and sign up for PHIWM's e-newsletter. For more information, please contact Lisa Ranghelli, Director of Assessment and Capacity Building, at LRanghelli@PublicHealthWM.org.