Community Health Needs Assessment

In an effort to better understand the health needs of the communities served by Stewart Memorial Community Hospital (SMCH), hospital officials are conducting a short survey. “The survey can be taken on-line or filled out on paper and returned to Stewart Memorial,” stated Cindy Carstens, CEO at SMCH. The 18 question survey is designed to pin point the concerns people have about their personal health, the health of their family and their community. One goal of the survey is to discover what barriers people face in becoming healthier.

Results from the Community Health Needs Assessment survey will help community leaders further develop the Health Improvement Plan (CHNA HIP) which was started in 2015. The plan includes updating the community health profile, building community collaboration, developing a health improvement plan, and evaluating the outcome. This plan will complement the plan already developed by Calhoun County Public Health. Carstens comments, “The new survey will be used to validate the progress we’ve made in the past three years and will help us create future goals to focus on.”

New programs were developed at SMCH due to the 2015 survey. “Our diabetes educators offer Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) because of community desire for more education about the disease and its prevention. We also began the State Innovation Models (SIM) initiative to help individuals in Calhoun county with medical challenges. We work closely with Calhoun County Public Health to find resources for patients who are facing barriers to medical care, like transportation to appointments or reducing the cost of medications,” notes Carstens.

Everyone in the SMCH service area is invited to participate in the survey. “The goal this year is to gather at least 250 responses. In 2015 we received 202 responses,” says Carstens.