The team examines coordination between hospitals and public health departments in addressing community health needs

Ohio University researchers Dr. Cory Cronin, Dr. Berkeley Franz and student Anne Mathew are co-authors a newspaper published in Health mattersexamining the coordination between hospitals and public health departments in addressing community health needs in the state of Ohio.

The article, part of the June issue of Health matters aimed at reimagining public health, continues the work Cronin and Franz have done over the past six years to examine how hospitals across the country impact public health within their respective communities. This study marks the first time the research team used a coding protocol, developed by Franz, to analyze all hospitals in one state, as well as public health department documents.

“Collaborations across multiple sectors are critical to improving population health,” said Cronin, associate professor and co-director of the Institute to Advance Health Equity (ADVANCE) in the College of Health Sciences and Professions. “Improving coordination between nonprofit hospitals and local health departments is one way we can achieve health improvement, and currently a number of states are exploring policies to facilitate such collaboration, with Ohio among the latest to implement such policies.”

The impetus for the study came from new policy requirements in Ohio requiring hospitals and public health departments to report on community investments and align their efforts with a statewide planning process. The findings serve as a critical foundation for monitoring alignment after the implementation of these policies and identifying areas that require greater collaboration, particularly in addressing social determinants of health.

The researchers compared alignment in identified and addressed needs between nonprofit hospitals and local health departments and found low alignment between hospitals and health departments, especially on the social determinants of health, despite both entities having formal responsibilities to their communities.

This misalignment underscores the importance of multisectoral collaboration in addressing critical public health needs.

“Alignment is critical to explore because although these organizations have different missions, they both have formal responsibilities to the communities they serve,” said Franz, Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Ralph S. Licklider, DO Endowed Faculty Fellow in Population Health Science and associate professor in the Heritage College of Osteopathy, explained.

“Ideally, these organizations would work together to address critical public health needs, but this can only happen if they identify and address the same needs. Importantly, there was low coordination between hospitals and health departments on the social determinants of health. factors are incredibly important in shaping health outcomes and encouraging multisector collaboration to address social problems should be a priority in Ohio.”

According to Cronin, the top identified health needs found by both hospitals and health departments include mental health, substance use and obesity.

“Coordinating between organizations was high among key needs, such as mental health and substance use, but varied more among less commonly identified needs,” Cronin explains. “Hospitals and health departments both provide different resources, and we found that health departments were more responsive to social determinants than hospitals. By understanding these important insights, hospitals and health departments may be able to better serve their communities and policies can be developed to consider how to promote collaboration between the two to meet the needs of the community where they are located .”

Mathew, a senior Honors Tutorial College student in the neuroscience program, played a critical role as the primary data analyst for the study. Her meticulous work included reading and analyzing extensive documents from both hospitals and health departments, which contributed significantly to research while providing her with crucial skills and experience for her future career goals.

She coded the Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA) and Improvement Strategies (IS) so that they could be merged into one document and then further analyzed. This involved searching and locating each hospital’s CHNA and IS, reading through each document, and following the coding protocol to determine if they matched any of the 17 common health needs. During her research, she found that more than 90% of local health departments identified social determinants of health as a top need, compared to 53% of hospitals.

“I have learned that there are no small roles when it comes to research. A seemingly insignificant and tedious task at the time resulted in an analysis that carries significant weight, especially in our understanding of community health in Ohio. I can now make my contribution as part of a larger effort and a bigger picture,” added Mathew, who was mentored by Cronin throughout her undergraduate career.

Cronin applauded his student’s work, noting that being published as an undergraduate is a remarkable achievement and that her involvement in the study provided valuable insights into health policy and research.

“I am so grateful for the supportive faculty who encourage students like me to participate in meaningful research,” Mathew said. “It was an incredible honor to have worked with Dr. Cronin, Dr. Franz and the rest of the team to get this paper published.”

In conjunction with the publication of the June issue, Cronin spoke at a Webinar on June 5 on the findings of their research, as well as next steps in addressing the community’s health needs. He was also featured in a podcast where he talked broadly about public health.

The study was also co-authored by Simone Rauscher Singh of the University of Michigan, Ashlyn Burns and Valerie A. Yeager of Indiana University, Neeraj Puro of Florida Atlantic University and Tatiane Santos of Tulane University.