New study reveals how Ohio hospitals and health departments can join forces to tackle poor mental health, 物质使用与肥胖

bet8九州登录入口研究人员. 科里·克罗宁博士. 伯克利弗朗茨 and undergraduate student Anne 马修 coauthored a paper published in the prestigious “卫生事务《, exploring the alignment between hospitals and public health departments in addressing community health needs in the state of Ohio.

The paper, part of the June issue of “卫生事务” focused on reimagining public health, continues the work Cronin and Franz have done over the last six years in examining how hospitals across the nation influence population health within their respective communities. This study marks the first instance that the research team is using coding protocol, 弗朗茨开发的, 分析一个州的所有医院, 还有公共卫生部门的文件.

 

“Multisector collaboration is critical for improving population health,“克罗宁, an associate professor and co-director of the Institute to Advance Health Equity (ADVANCE) in the 卫生科学与职业学院, 说. “Improving the alignment 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, 俄亥俄州是最新实施此类政策的州之一.”

The impetus for the study stemmed from new policy requirements in Ohio mandating hospitals and public health departments to report on community investments and align their efforts with a statewide planning process. The findings serve as a crucial baseline for tracking alignment post-implementation of these policies and identifying areas necessitating greater collaboration, 特别是在处理健康的社会决定因素方面.

The researchers compared the alignment in identified and addressed needs between nonprofit hospitals and local health departments and found low alignment between hospitals and health departments, 特别是关于健康的社会决定因素, despite both entities having formal responsibilities to their communities.

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

“Alignment is critical to study because while these organizations have different missions, 他们都对所服务的社区负有正式的责任,“弗朗茨, 骨科传统基金会Ralph S. Licklider, D.O. Endowed 教师 Fellow in Population Health Science and associate professor in the 传统骨科医学院, 解释. “理想情况下, these organizations would work together to address critical public health needs, 但这只有在他们确定并解决相同需求的情况下才能实现. 重要的是, there was low alignment between hospitals and health departments for the social determinants of health. We know social factors are incredibly important for shaping health outcomes and encouraging multisector collaboration to address social issues should be a priority in Ohio.”

根据克罗宁, the top identified health needs found by both hospitals and health departments include mental health, 物质使用与肥胖.

“Alignment across organizations was high among the top needs such as mental health and substance use but varied more among less commonly identified needs,克罗宁解释道. “Hospitals and health departments both offer different resources and we found that health departments were more responsive to social determinants than hospitals. 通过理解这些要点, hospitals and health departments may be able to better serve their communities and policies can be created to consider how to promote collaboration between the two to meet community needs where they are at.”

马修, 神经科学专业的高级荣誉辅导学生, 作为研究的主要数据分析师，在研究中发挥了关键作用. Her meticulous work involved reading and analyzing extensive documents from both hospitals and health departments, contributing significantly to the research while providing her with critical skills and experience for her future career goals.

She coded the community health needs assessments (CHNA) and improvement strategies (IS) so they would be compiled into one document which could then be further analyzed. 这包括搜索和找到每家医院的中国和伊斯兰国, 通读每个文档, and following the coding protocol to determine their alignment with any of the 17 common health needs. 在她的研究中, she discovered that over 90% of local health departments identified social determinants of health as a top need compared to 53% of hospitals.

“我了解到，在研究中没有小角色. A seemingly menial and tedious task at the time resulted in an analysis that carries significant weight, 特别是我们对俄亥俄州社区健康的理解. I can now see my contribution as part of a larger effort and bigger picture,“马修, 她的本科生涯都是由克罗宁指导的, 添加.

克罗宁称赞了他学生的工作, noting that being published as an undergraduate is a remarkable achievement and that her involvement in the study provided invaluable insights into health policy and research.

“I am so grateful for the supportive faculty encouraging students like me to engage in meaningful research,马修说. “能和奥巴马博士一起工作是一种难以置信的荣幸. 克罗宁,博士. 弗朗茨和团队的其他成员一起发表了这篇论文.”

In conjunction with the release of the June issue, Cronin spoke during a 6月5日的网络研讨会 on the findings from their study, as well as next steps in addressing community health needs. 他还出演了一部电影 播客 广泛讨论公共卫生问题.

The study was also coauthored by Simone Rauscher Singh of the University of Michigan, 阿什林·伯恩斯和瓦莱丽·A. 印第安纳大学的耶格尔说, 佛罗里达大西洋大学的Neeraj Puro说, 以及杜兰大学的Tatiane Santos.