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Act on What's Important

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The key concept below underscores the importance of addressing health holistically. Also, consider how you will Evaluate Actions and outcomes as you act on what is important.

After selecting an intervention set, work with partners to carry out a coordinated, collaborative combination of activities. Monitor progress and incorporate continuous quality improvements over the course of your efforts to strengthen your initiative(s) and broaden your impact on the community’s health.

Key Concept

  • Implementation of a combination of activities and actions is carried out by multiple stakeholders, at multiple levels, simultaneously; including:
    • Select evidence-based interventions
    • Policy, systems, and environmental solutions

Tools for Getting Started

  • CHIPP Template Implementation Plan
    • Go to Attachment 1: Hospital Public Health Requirements related to Implementation Planning (page 10) for a template that contains specific and measurable objectives; evidence-based strategies; and specific action steps with accountabilities, deadlines, and resources needed.
  • Readiness and Preparation Tool
    • Click on the Readiness link in the middle of the page for a Readiness and Preparation Tool that allows you to quickly assess your level of readiness to implement community health initiatives by completing an online worksheet.

Click here for additional tools related to the key concepts.

Relevant Excerpts from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Final Rule
The IRS Final Rule on Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA) for Charitable Hospitals contains language related to select key concepts above. An excerpt of this language is provided below. To see the full regulation, click on the hyperlinked references below this paragraph.26

A hospital’s implementation plan is “a written plan that, with respect to each significant health need identified through the CHNA, either—(i) Describes how the hospital facility plans to address the health need; or (ii) Identifies the health need as one the hospital facility does not intend to address and explains why the hospital facility does not intend to address the health need.”27 

The “final regulations adopt the proposed provision allowing for joint implementation strategies.”28  “[S]uch collaboration is an important way to conserve resources, promote cross-system strategies, and yield better outcomes.”29 

This “approach [also] avoids the need to create duplicative separate documents while still ensuring that information for each hospital facility is clearly presented.”30

Note: The above statements do not constitute legal advice or regulatory guidance from CDC. Questions regarding the application of law to a specific circumstance or circumstances should be submitted to an attorney or other qualified legal professional.

26Additional Requirements for Charitable Hospitals; Community Health Needs Assessments for Charitable Hospitals; Requirement of a Section 4959 Excise Tax Return and Time for Filing the Return, 79 Fed. Reg. 78,953 (December 31, 2014) (to be codified at 26 C.F.R. pts. 1, 53, and 602), available at IRS Final Rule on Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA) for Charitable Hospitals .
27Id. at 78,969.
28Id. at 78,970.
29Id.
30Id.

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