Hilltop Participates in CDC Forum on Community Health Needs Assessment

Donna Folkemer, MA, director of Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program, was a panelist at a recent public forum sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, entitled Best Practices for Community Health Needs Assessment and Implementation Strategy Development: A Review of Scientific Methods, Current Practices, and Future Potential, on July 12, 2011, in Atlanta, Georgia. Folkemer participated on the panel, entitled Reporting and Oversight: State Level Oversight, with Lois Johnson from the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General and Gianfranco Pezzino from the Kansas Health Institute. Folkemer began by asking the audience to consider how best to create a public sector oversight role that can lead to desired outcomes for community health improvement. She noted that state approaches to reporting and oversight vary significantly and that there is not yet an evidence base to direct states as they define community benefit measures. She said that the Affordable Care Act is leading states to identify benchmarks of success as they design health insurance exchanges, health information technology systems, etc., stating that the same attention should be given to benchmarking in the community benefits arena. “Benchmarks are designed to measure the rate of change, and it will be important for states to find creative and practical ways to measure change in the practices of nonprofit hospitals to assure good community health outcomes,” Folkemer said.

July 19, 2011