Community health needs assessments (CHNA) and implementation strategies are a requirement for tax-exempt hospitals as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. These assessments and strategies create an important opportunity to improve the health of communities. They ensure that hospitals have the information they need to provide community benefits that meet the needs of their communities. They also provide an opportunity to improve coordination of hospital community benefits with other efforts to improve community health. By statute, the CHNAs must take into account input from persons who represent the broad interests of the community served by the hospital facility, including those with special knowledge of or expertise in public health.
The CHNA is part of an ongoing broader community health improvement process. A community health improvement process uses CHA data to identify priority issues, develop and implement strategies for action, and establish accountability to ensure measurable health improvement, which are often outlined in the form of a community health improvement plan (CHIP). A community health improvement process looks outside of the performance of an individual organization serving a specific segment of a community to the way in which the activities of many organizations contribute to community health improvement.
Below are MMC’s community health improvement plans that have been implemented:
2021 – 2023
2018 – 2020
2015 – 2017
