Utilizing Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs) in Nonprofit Hospitals to Guide Population-Centered Outcomes Research for Pediatric Patients: New Recommendations for CHNA Reporting

Currently, Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) reports lack a standard structure, making it difficult to derive meaningful information. However, they have the potential to be a useful tool for analyzing pediatric outcomes, guiding resource allocation, and linking to Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute priorities. The objective was to evaluate the utility of CHNA for informing future pediatric, patient-centered outcomes research. The authors analyzed CHNA documents, published before July 1, 2016 by 61 nonprofit hospitals, focusing on 4 metropolitan areas in Florida: Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville. Out of 18 health priorities identified, access to care and obesity were universally recognized as the most urgent pediatric health needs across all hospital types and metropolitan regions. This analysis also yielded insights into key regional differences. The authors advocate that a major change in the CHNA format be implemented using a common set of domains to produce meaningful, interpretable, and comparable results that inform and guide patient-centered health outcomes research.