Hospitals

St. Joseph Health System of Sonoma County

St. Joseph Health—Sonoma County is a multi-million-dollar health system anchored by two hospitals: Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Petaluma Valley Hospital. Its innovative program of deploying community health workers and community organizers expands the traditional role of charitable, philanthropic, and community benefit activities among hospitals. The hospital tithes, meaning that 10 percent of its net income is reinvested in Community Benefit, in the form of grants and programs that are designed to improve community health. Read more about St. Joseph Health System of Sonoma County...

Hospital Community Benefits after the ACA: The Emerging Federal Framework

Donna C. Folkemer, Laura A. Spicer, Carl H. Mueller, Martha H. Somerville, Avery L. R. Brow, Charles J. Milligan, Jr. and Cynthia L. Boddie-Willis

The Affordable Care Act: Implications for Community Development

Steve Dubb
Rooflines

Even if you have not tuned out of the long-running debate about the future of health care in the United States, you can be forgiven if you’ve never heard of a “community health needs assessment” – which is also often referred to by the even more wonky initials CHNA.

Unlike putative “death panels” and insurance mandates, which consumed countless hours of media time, section 9007 of the Affordable Care Act, buried on pages 737–739 of the 906-page law and given the boring, bureaucratic title of “additional requirements for charitable hospitals,” was pretty much ignored.

But boring does not mean unimportant!