Community Connections: Community Accountability and Transparency
Helping Hospitals Better Serve Their Communities (November 2007)

Community Health Assessment Toolkit
The ACHI Community Health Assessment Toolkit is a guide for planning, leading, and using community health assessments to better understand--and ultimately improve--the health of communities. It is a product of AHA’s Community Connections initiative.  (January 2008) 

Community Connections: Case Examples 

Care in Action
How the people and programs of America's not-for-profit hospitals benefit their communities every day.

Report of the National Steering Committee on Hospitals and the Public’s Health
A Call to Action for Hospital CEOs & Trustees
This Health Research and Educational Trust report has helpful recommendations for better integrating health systems and the public health system.  More than 20 experts in hospital administration and public health developed this call to action with practical steps for demonstrating how an acute care organization can engage in health promotion and disease prevention.

Reporting Community Benefit
A special message from AHA President Rich Umbdenstock on the AHA's community benefit reporting framework.

Prepared to Care 
Hospitals play a unique role in America's health care system: access to care all day, every day, serving as the medical safety net for the community, being ready when disaster strikes and providing critical services often taken for granted and not explicitly funded. 

Presentations

  Full Chart Pack
  24/7 Role of America's Full Service Hospitals
  The Safety Net Role of America's Full Service Hospitals
  Disaster Readiness Role of America's Full Service Hospitals
  Multiple Roles & Contributions of America's Full Service Hospitals
  AHA Advocacy Message Presentations

Strengthening Community Trust: Strategies for CEOs
This guide will help you and other members of your leadership team advance a community leadership strategy.  It has three parts: “Measuring the Community Connection: A Strategy Checklist for Leaders”, “Testing the Community Connection”  and “Ideas in Action”.
 

Measuring the Community Connection: A Strategy Checklist for Leaders
This checklist provides a framework for thinking about accountability and community outreach, increasing dialogue and hard wiring this thinking into an organization’s strategies and structure.

Trust Counts Now
This powerful report by former AHA Board Chair and CEO, John King looks at how hospital leaders can bring the community closer to their organizations by leading the organization closer to the community. 

Guide for Planning and Reporting Community Benefit
A guide for non-for-profit health care organizations provided by the Catholic Health Association of the United States.

Do Good and Talk About It
A CHRISTUS health study that emphasizes the importance of telling our stories to the public. 

Messages and Strategies for Community Owned Health Care Organizations; a guide to communicating value
VHA Mountain States 

Association for Community Health Improvement - Community Benefit Resources
ACHI site includes sample community benefit policies, state reporting programs, as well as articles and tools.  ACHI is an AHA-affiliate and a membership organization devoted to community health and community benefit.
 


Resources