Improving the Public Health Utility of the Community Health Status Indicators for Community Health Assessment and Improvement

BACKGROUND: The Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) Web-application produces health profiles for all 3,143 counties in the United States. CHSI was originally designed and hosted by the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Library of Medicine, the Public Health Foundation, and multiple public health professional organizations. In 2012, CDC assumed primary responsibility for CHSI and launched a re-designed website in early 2015.

METHODS: CDC used a stakeholder-driven, iterative process to redesign the web application. The goals of CHSI 2015 are to improve the ability of stakeholders to: 1) comprehensively assess community health status and identify disparities; 2) promote a shared understanding of the wide range of factors that drive health; and 3) mobilize multi-sector partnerships to work collaboratively to improve population health. To achieve these goals, CHSI 2015 county profiles include a comprehensive set of indicators of health outcomes (mortality and morbidity) and health determinants (health care access and quality, health behaviors, social factors, physical environment); more than 300 unique measures including health outcomes stratified by subpopulations (race/ethnicity, age groups, sex) and Healthy People (HP) 2020targets; and seventeen important demographic characteristics.  A key feature of CHSI 2015 is the ability for users to compare each health outcome and determinant indicator with those of similar “peer counties,” as well as to the U.S. as a whole. CHSI 2015 also includes a summary comparison page allowing users to quickly assess how a county’s health outcomes and determinants compares to those of its peers and indicators stratified by subpopulations and census tract maps to identify vulnerable populations and potential health disparities

RESULTS: During this session CDC will provide a live demonstration of the redesigned web application and moderate a CSTE panel of state and local health department representatives who will summarize their experience with CHSI 2015, identify areas of strengths and opportunities for improvement, and discuss the Community Health Improvement (CHI)  tools and resources they provide to supplement the federal tools. The remainder of the session will be used to solicit feedback from CSTE members on potential improvements to CHSI that would increase its public health utility.  

CONCLUSIONS: CSTE member feedback collected during this interactive session will be used to develop a prioritized list of CHSI 2015 enhancements that can be incorporated prior to the next planned release in January of 2016.