Assessing Markets and Community Health Needs

This past Wednesday, the on-campus HCAD first-year students completed a major joint project across the HCAD 5311 (Health Services Organization & Policy II) and HCAD 5313 (Health Economics) courses: the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and Market Analysis project.  For the third consecutive year, this project asked groups of students to each select a specific market in the U.S. and then complete a detailed analysis of their respective market, simulating both a CHNA that is required for nonprofit hospitals throughout the U.S. as well as an economic market outlook that is a common tool developed by health care strategic groups and consulting firms.  The five markets selected by student groups included Baltimore, Colorado Springs, Des Moines, Las Vegas, and San Diego.

This year's presentations took a different form than previous years, as the traditional format of having each group formally present their individual analysis in half-hour blocks was replaced by a simulation of a board meeting during which groups presented summaries of their analyses in a more conversational style before a wealthy philanthropist.  The scenario put students in the position of working to educate the philanthropist, who was interested in investing her fortune in efforts to improve health care and meaningfully address health needs, about what critical and even unmet or undermet needs should be prioritized.  After the five groups presented their summaries (each taking about 20 minutes), the class then collectively discussed what common themes were heard across multiple markets as well as what unique features seemed to distinguish certain markets from others in terms of their market trends and health factors.  Finally, each student was tasked after the meeting with crafting an individual email - no more than 400 words - to the philanthropist in which they summarized and synthesized the information presented during the meeting and offered guidance in how the philanthropist can most effectively address today's health challenges through her vast resources.

Some of the most common needs identified across multiple markets in this year's presentations included access to primary care services, mental and behavioral health care, efforts to address and prevent obesity, and efforts to address and prevent cardiovascular disease.  Taking a step back, this reflects and is consistent with much of what we hear and read in the literature today about the U.S. health care delivery system: primary care, mental and behavioral health care, preventative care, and chronic disease management have traditionally been underaddressed, fragmented, and siloed as a part of our efforts to address the population's health care needs, and we see increasing calls for more efforts to promote, integrate, and meaningfully support these elements of the health care continuum across health policy, health care organizations, and health markets today.

It is interesting to see the students' quantiative and qualitative work so accurately - yet independently - reflect what today's thought leaders and health experts have pointed to as some of the most pressing real-world health care issues across the country.  More personally, it is gratifying to see our students work together so diligently and effectively in teams to develop these robust and meaningful analyses, and we trust that this project will be a helpful exercise and tool moving forward as they embark upon their careers in health care administration.  Well done, students...time to enjoy your spring break!