Recommended Resources

The Catholic Health Association of the United States has a set of tools and websites to assist hospitals with assessing community health needs and developing implementation strategies.  Reading these may assist your agency in determining how to help.  Most PDF copies are free to download at several web pages, including:

• Assessing and addressing- community health needs
• A guide for planning and reporting community benefit
• Social determinants of health
• Resources overview

The Oklahoma Hospital Association provided documents to address comprehensive tobacco control within hospitals.  They will assist you in thinking about the range of projects a hospital can undertake to address tobacco use in the hospital.  These include:

• Tobacco-Free Properties Policy: For many hospitals, this is a starting point activity in their efforts to support tobacco cessation in the community.  Activities include efforts to support patients, visitors, employees, volunteers, vendors, and contractors.
• Patient-Centered Tobacco Cessation/Nicotine Addiction Treatment – Inpatients
•  Patient-Centered Tobacco Cessation/Nicotine Addiction Treatment – Outpatients
• Employee Cessation Support and Treatment

For additional information, visit OKOHA.com/hhpq.

Although many hospital CHNA Implementation Plans start with the kind of hospital-centric activities noted above, many also include community-based activities.  These are in the direct domain of public health agencies (e.g. outreach to low income populations or high-risk populations), so the state and local public health resources already available in your state will be the most beneficial.