Evaluating the Utilization of the Community Health Assessment: Cabarrus County, North Carolina
Creators: name: Lewis, Meghan
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2011

description: Background: There are 100 counties in North Carolina and 85 local health departments. As of July 2011, roughly 72 percent of North Carolina health departments were accredited. This includes Cabarrus Health Alliance, located in Kannapolis, NC. One of many measures and standards used to award accreditation by the North Carolina Division of Public Health is a completed community health assessment. Currently, there is plethora of literature about how a community assessment can be beneficial to a community, but more documentation is needed to explain how North Carolina’s local health departments can use the data collected to maximize benefits to the community. Methods: This research evaluates utilization of a community assessment, specifically among the individuals (Community Planning Council) involved in completing the assessment. The methods used for this research included data collection through an online survey to assess the level and patterns of utilization of the Cabarrus Community Needs Assessment (CNA). The online survey contained 25 questions; 16 questions were quantitative, and nine questions were qualitative. A total of 65 prospective participants were contacted, who were members of the Community Planning Council spanning three separate assessment periods from 2004 through the presently convening 2012 Community Planning Council. Based on an emailed recruitment letter, with two follow-up requests, 38 participants responded to the survey, for a 58 percent response rate. Results: Results of this evaluation show that among the survey respondents 51 percent utilized the CNA to supplement a work related project and 16 percent utilized it to supplement a community project; 100 percent of respondents felt that the CNA was a valuable resource for Cabarrus County and 95 percent of respondents felt the CNA reported accurate statistics. Only 63 percent of respondents knew how to access the CNA online, which could suggest either low accessibility or respondents chose to utilize a hard copy version in lieu of being unable to access the CNA online. It also could indicate a low likelihood of future council members of using the new CNA, if the distribution and accessibility remain the same. Recommendations/ Conclusions: The three primary recommendations derived from this research center on themes of accessibility and education. The first recommendation is to improve accessibility by educating present and past council members on how to access the CNA online. The second recommendation is that Cabarrus Health Alliance increase the knowledge among stake holders in specific industries (healthcare, nonprofit and government) regarding the data included in the CNA and how it can be useful. Finally, the third recommendation is to modify and improve the distribution process of the final CNA document using specific methods recommended by survey respondents. Recommendations originating from the answers provided by respondents will allow Cabarrus County stakeholders, including the current 2012 Planning Council and Cabarrus Health Alliance, to make adjustments and improvements to the way the Community Needs Assessment is publicized, distributed and utilized in the county resulting in a larger impact in the county. IN addition, this research and the results of this study will add to the current body of knowledge about how one local health department and the key community stake holders use a community health assessment after it is submitted to the state for accreditation. This research provided Cabarrus County an exciting opportunity to pilot a utilization evaluation based on the unique perspectives of members of the Cabarrus County Planning Council from three separate assessment periods. Finally, the success of this study shows that evaluating the CNA through a survey of key stakeholders, the planning council, is useful, feasible and can serve as a model for other counties in North Carolina.