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To best meet the needs of children and families, Children's Hospital Boston regularly "takes the pulse" of the community to identify and understand current local public health and social issues. It does this using both formal and informal mechanisms to learn from and involve the community. Children's is now planning a formal health and wellness assessment to begin during the summer of 2009. For the first time, Children's is collaborating with other local teaching hospitals to share resources and strategies to most effectively perform this analysis. The assessment, which Children's conducts formally every three years, will include focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders such as community leaders, providers, advocates and families to better understand and identify met and unmet health needs, determine gaps in current services and recognize emerging health concerns.
In addition to the formal assessment process, Children's uses other mechanisms to monitor community needs throughout the year. The hospital reviews public health data, participates in community forums and receives input from patients and families cared for in the hospital as well in our community programs.
Children's encourages the active participation of its Community Advisory Board, whose members represent the neighborhoods served by the hospital, to provide guidance and offer feedback on community assets. The hospital also utilizes program-specific groups such as the asthma Family Advisory Board to gain the insight and perspective of parents.
We will report back on the results of this assessment in a future edition of the kidvocate. More information also can be found in Children's Annual Report to the Massachusetts Attorney General, at childrenshospital.org/communitybenefits. |
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