Community Health Needs Assessment 1

This project will facilitate a community health needs assessment within the combined service areas of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Saint Peter's University Hospital comprising Middlesex county and several towns within Somerset county. This will involve secondary data analysis yielding key health indicators including those reflecting barriers in access to care as well as key informant interviews (to be conducted by department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School) aimed at specific patient and provider populations including community-based-organizations, care-givers and hospital patients. Rutgers CSHP will also provide guidance to the hospitals on formulating a telephone survey to be conducted within the community and also interpret the findings from this survey. The final deliverable will be a comprehensive report containing these findings that will help guide hospitals in their community-level interventions aimed at addressing unmet population health needs. A community health improvement plan (CHIP) based on results of our CHNA was recently released by the hospitals and can be found here: Middlesex and Somerset Counties Community Health Improvement Plan. In addition, an addendum to A Community Health Needs Assessment for Saint Peter's University Hospital & Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital can be found here: Findings from a Chinese–American Community Member Focus Group.