Every three years, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, requires non-profit hospitals to conduct a community health needs assessment, and Chelsea Community Hospital (CCH) recently completed one.
Here are some of the statistics they found, according to a press release from the hospital.
- More than half of adults and one-third of children and teens in the CCH service area (Chelsea, Dexter, Manchester, Grass Lake and Stockbridge) are overweight or obese.
- About one in four adults have high blood pressure and/or high cholesterol.
- One in five adults smoke, almost twice the rate of adult smoking in Ann Arbor.
- Binge drinking among adults and teens has dropped over the last five years
- Approximately one in four teens report feeling depressed in the past year.
After reviewing this data, a plan was developed and the hospital will engage key community partners in implementing activities across the service area to make improvements.
The needs assessment was led by the CCH Community Health Improvement Council (CHIC), in partnership with the Washtenaw County Health Improvement Plan Teams, and five local Wellness Coalitions organized by the Chelsea-Area Wellness Foundation.
“As part of our mission to improve the health of our communities, this process was not new to Chelsea Community Hospital. It’s something we’ve always done,” said Reiley Curran, director of Community Health Improvement at CCH. “We have a long history of leading community-based health promotion and disease prevention initiatives in our service area.”
CHIC used survey data, key informant interviews, and information gathered by the coalitions to identify and prioritize health problems and risk factors in the hospital’s primary service area, which includes Chelsea, Dexter, Grass Lake, Manchester, and Stockbridge.
Based on the size and severity of the problem, available data, and the hospital’s ability to have an impact, the following needs were identified as the most important:
- overweight and obesity
- heart disease and stroke
- substance abuse and youth mental health.
The most important risk factors to address include nutrition, physical activity, access to care, social support, and the physical environment.
For a look at the complete report, go to www.cch.org website, under Community Health Improvement Programs.
Community Health Improvement Programs can be found under the third tab from the left, “healthy living,” which is across the top just under the Chelsea Community Hospital logo.