Community Health Needs Predict Population Health Partnerships Among U.S. Children’s Hospitals

Abstract

Cross-sector collaboration is critical to improving population health, but data on partnership activities by children’s hospitals are limited, and there is a need to identify service delivery gaps for families. The aim of this study is to use public community benefit reports for all children’s hospitals in the United States to assess the extent to which children’s hospitals partner with external organizations to address five key health needs: health care access, chronic disease, social needs, mental health, and substance abuse. Strategies that involved partnering with community organizations were most common in addressing social needs and substance abuse. When adjusted for institutional and community characteristics hospitals in a multilevel regression model, hospitals had higher odds of partnering to address chronic illness and social needs. To encourage hospital engagement with complex social and behavioral health needs and promote health equity, support should be provided to help hospitals establish local population health networks.

Addressing population health inequities: investing in the social determinants of health for children and families to advance child health equity

“…The Affordable Care Act mandated that nonprofit hospitals engage with communities to improve overall health and conduct community health needs assessments every 3 years [ 9 ]. Many children's hospitals have engaged in population health efforts through collaborations with community organizations to address the social determinants of health [ 17 ]. Franz et al [ 17 ] examined community partnerships and cross-sector collaboration by children's hospitals as mechanisms for moving upstream to address social and behavioral health needs.…”

“…Many children's hospitals have engaged in population health efforts through collaborations with community organizations to address the social determinants of health [ 17 ]. Franz et al [ 17 ] examined community partnerships and cross-sector collaboration by children's hospitals as mechanisms for moving upstream to address social and behavioral health needs. Other approaches include engaging community health workers to address social needs and connect patients to community-based organizations [ 18 , 19 ].…”