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The purpose of conducting a community health assessment is to describe the health of local people, identify areas for health improvement, identify use of local health care services, determine factors that contribute to health issues, identify and prioritize community needs, and help health care leaders identify potential actions to address the community’s health needs. Custer Health is required to do a community health assessment every five years in order to be eligible for accreditation. Critical Access Hospitals in the state must also conduct an assessment every three years, as mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Custer Health and local hospitals identify community health needs through:

• Community focus groups
• Surveys
• Interviews with community leaders
• Health-related data

After identifying needs in the communities, stakeholders collaborated to develop community health improvement plans to address the prioritized needs determined through the assessments.