Parkland, DCHHS complete community health needs assessment

Posted: 10/16/2019

Identify significant health disparities in portions of Dallas County

Parkland Health & Hospital System and Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) have partnered to develop a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) to identify the geographic areas and populations that experience the most significant health disparities in Dallas County.

Produced in adherence to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and as part of the accreditation process for public health departments, the report outlines health disparities and incidence of diseases across racial and ethnic minorities, socio-economic factors, underserved populations, and access to care.

The methodology framework used for the CHNA includes: public health practice and community-based participatory research as well as qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The data used for this report was gathered from an array of data sources and from a series of focus groups conducted throughout Dallas County.

“One does not have to look deep into the health data of Dallas County to recognize that significant disparities exist among the population and the geography of these disparities is readily apparent,” the report states. “While much of Dallas County benefits from a strong economy, there are several geographic areas that struggle with severe poverty or pockets of economic instability and the social ills that accompany a lack of resources including significant health disparities. Many of the ZIP codes within these underserved areas have suffered from the disparities for decades.”

Emerging from the report were findings related to access to care, demand for health services for special populations, leading causes of chronic conditions such as hypertension, cancer and diabetes, among others, and the increasing number of sexually transmitted disease cases in Dallas County. The report also outlines socio-economic factors that contribute to poor health outcomes among at-risk populations. These factors are commonly referred to as social determinants of health (SDOH) or social drivers of health.

Parkland and DCHHS will now focus their efforts on developing an implementation plan to address key priorities identified in the report. But, given that many of the contributing factors to health disparities are not clinical in nature, both agencies recognize they cannot tackle these disparities alone.

“The only way to effectively address health disparities in Dallas County is to employ a collective impact approach that brings together community stakeholders with a common mission,” said Teresita Oaks, a director with Parkland’s Community Health Institute. “Neither Parkland nor the health department can solve all of the issues contributing to health disparities in Dallas County. This effort will require collaboration among multiple government agencies, as well as community-based organizations and private industry. Between now and January, Parkland and DCHHS will be reaching out to these stakeholders and asking for their input as well as what they feel they can contribute to reducing health disparities”

To view the Community Health Needs Assessment, please visit:
www.parklandhospital.com/CHNA. To learn more about Parkland services, visit www.parklandhospital.com.