Community Health Improvement Plan

Panhandle Public Health District (PPHD) is accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), which requires the health department to conduct a comprehensive Nebraska Panhandle Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) every five years. However, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations require tax-exempt hospitals to conduct a CHNA every three years. In 2014, PPHD made the decision to collaborate with hospitals on the CHNA process by syncing the health department process with the hospital process, meaning that PPHD completes a CHNA every three years, in tandem with area hospitals. Thus, PPHD now facilitates a joint CHNA and planning process with the eight hospitals in the Nebraska Panhandle, all of which are members of the Rural Nebraska Healthcare Network (RNHN).

The purpose of the CHNA process is to describe the current health status of the community, identify and prioritize health issues, better understand the range of factors that can impact health, and identify assets and resources that can be mobilized to improve the health of the community.

Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP), a partnership-based framework, has been used for the CHNA and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) development process in the Panhandle since 2011, and is used to this day. In 2023, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) created a new version of the MAPP (2.0). MAPP 2.0 emphasizes the importance of community engagement, data-driven assessments, and health equity in a more streamlined process. The new resources and tools for engagement were designed to be more accessible to the partners who participate in the process.

The MAPP model has three key phases:

Build the Community Health Improvement Foundation: This phase includes partnership development and taking inventory of everyone’s assets and roles in the process
Tell the community story: This is the assessment phase where we collect data, both qualitative and quantitative
Continuously improve the community: this step is the community health improvement plan!