QA with Kevin Barnett of the Public Health Institute

Copyright

2016

In this interview, Kevin Barnett, a senior investigator with the Public Health Institute - a nonprofit focused on strengthening the nation’s public health system looks at ways nonprofit hospitals meet their charitable obligations, how hospitals spend their community benefit dollars, and how hospitals define communities and engage stakeholders to identify problems and develop solutions for conducting and publishing CHNAs. The interview raises concerns that, among other things, hospitals need to include community members in the needs assessment process as mandated by the Affordable Care Act and the IRS regulations suggesting hospitals focus on their service areas. Barnett is working on a partnership between Stakeholder Health and the Governance Institute to bring hospital board members and senior leadership for a deep dive into content on population health and the intersection between community health and community development. He suggests clarifying expectations for defining communities to ensure hospitals focus on areas where health disparities are concentrated and measure aggregate impact at the population health level