Exploring the Role of Community Social Capital in Not-for-profit Hospitals’ Decision to Engage Community Partners in the Community Health Needs Assessment Process
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online June, 2023
Exploring the Role of Community Social Capital in Not-for-profit Hospitals’ Decision to Engage Community Partners in the Community Health Needs Assessment Process
Not-for-profit hospitals (NFPs) frequently partner with community organizations to conduct internal revenue service-mandated community health needs assessment (CHNA), yet little is known about the number of partnerships that hospitals enter into for this purpose. This article uses “American Hospital Associations’ 2020 Annual Survey” data to examine hospital-community partnerships around the CHNA and the role that community social capital defined as, “the networks that cross various professional, political and social boundaries to reflect community level trust needed to pursue shared objectives” plays in hospitals’ choices to partner with community organizations for the CHNA. After controlling for a set of hospital, community, and state characteristics, we found that hospitals present in communities with higher social capital were likely to partner with more community organizations to conduct CHNA. Greater social capital may thus promote community health by facilitating the partnerships NFPs develop with community organizations to conduct the CHNA.
BeattyK. E.WilsonK. D.CieciorA.StringerL. (2015). Collaboration among Missouri nonprofit hospitals and local health departments: Content analysis of community health needs assessments. American Journal of Public Health, 105(S2), S337–S344.
2.
BorgonoviF.AndrieuE.SubramanianS. (2021). The evolution of the association between community level social capital and COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in the United States. Social Science & Medicine, 278, 113948.
3.
BouffordJ. I.CasselC.BenderK.BerkmanL.BigbyJ.BurkeT. (2002). The future of the public’s health in the 21st century. Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
4.
BrewsterA. L.LeeS.CurryL. A.BradleyE. H. (2019). Association between community social capital and hospital readmission rates. Population Health Management, 22(1), 40–47.
CarltonE. L.SinghS. R. (2018). Joint community health needs assessments as a path for coordinating community-wide health improvement efforts between hospitals and local health departments. American Journal of Public Health, 108(5), 676–682.
7.
Carroll-ScottA.HensonR. M.KolkerJ.PurtleJ. (2017). The role of nonprofit hospitals in identifying and addressing health inequities in cities. Health Affairs, 36(6), 1102–1109.
8.
CheonO.BaekJ.KashB. A.JonesS. L. (2020). An exploration of community partnerships, safety-net hospitals, and readmission rates. Health Services Research, 55(4), 531–540.
9.
CroninC. E.FranzB.GarlingtonS. (2021). Population health partnerships and social capital: Facilitating hospital-community partnerships. SSM-Population Health, 13, 100739.
10.
DeroseK. P. (2008). Do bonding, bridging, and linking social capital affect preventable hospitalizations?Health Services Research, 43(5p1), 1520–1541.
11.
DeroseK. P.VardaD. M. (2009). Social capital and health care access: A systematic review. Medical Care Research and Review: MCRR, 66(3), 272–306.
12.
FranzB.FlintJ.CroninC. E. (2022). Assessing the strategies that children’s hospitals adopt to engage the social determinants of health in US cities. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 28(1), E146–E154.
13.
GottliebL.FichtenbergC.AlderwickH.AdlerN. (2019). Social determinants of health: What’s a healthcare system to do?Journal of Healthcare Management, 64(4), 243–257.
14.
GruberJ. B.WangW.QuittnerA.SalyakinaD.McCafferty-FernandezJ. (2019). Utilizing community health needs assessments (CHNAs) in nonprofit hospitals to guide population-centered outcomes research for pediatric patients: New recommendations for CHNA reporting. Population Health Management, 22(1), 25–31.
15.
HearldL. R.KarabukayevaA. (2022). Participation in value-based payment programs and US acute care hospital population health partnerships. Journal of Healthcare Management, 67(2), 103–119.
16.
HenizeA. W.BeckA. F.KleinM. D.AdamsM.KahnR. S. (2015). A road map to address the social determinants of health through community collaboration. Pediatrics, 136(4), e993–e1001.
17.
HiltsK. E.GibsonP. J.BlackburnJ.YeagerV. A.HalversonP. K.MenachemiN. (2022). Institutional factors associated with hospital partnerships for population health: A pooled cross-sectional analysis. Health Care Management Review, 47(3), 254–262.
18.
HiltsK. E.YeagerV. A.GibsonP. J.HalversonP. K.BlackburnJ.MenachemiN. (2021). Hospital partnerships for population health: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Healthcare Management/american College of Healthcare Executives, 66(3), 170–198.
19.
HoggR. A.VardaD. (2016). Insights into collaborative networks of nonprofit, private, and public organizations that address complex health issues. Health Affairs, 35(11), 2014–2019.
JamesJ. (2016). Nonprofit hospitals’ community benefit requirements. Project HOPE.
22.
LeeJ. R. S. M. (2018). The geography of social capital in America. US Congress Joint Economic Committee.
23.
MagnanS.FisherE.KindigD.IshamG.WoodD.EustisM.BackstromC.LeitzS. (2012). Achieving accountability for health and health care. Minnesota Medicine, 95(11), 37–39.
24.
MaysG. P.MamarilC. B.TimsinaL. R. (2016). Preventable death rates fell where communities expanded population health activities through multisector networks. Health Affairs, 35(11), 2005–2013.
25.
MaysG. P.ScutchfieldF. D. (2010). Improving public health system performance through multiorganizational partnerships. Preventing Chronic Disease, 7(6), A116.
26.
MurayamaH.FujiwaraY.KawachiI. (2012). Social capital and health: A review of prospective multilevel studies. Journal of Epidemiology, 22(3), 179–187.
NohE.BegunJ.WhiteK.PotthoffS. J. (2022). US hospital engagement in cross-sector partnerships for population health improvement in socioeconomically distressed counties. Public Health, 205, 55–57.
29.
ParkS.HamadiH.ApatuE.SpauldingA. C. (2020). Hospital partnerships in population health initiatives. Population Health Management, 23(3), 226–233.
30.
PennelC. L.McLeroyK. R.BurdineJ. N.Matarrita-CascanteD. (2015). Nonprofit hospitals’ approach to community health needs assessment. American Journal of Public Health, 105(3), e103–e113.
31.
PuroN.KellyR. J. (2022). Community social capital or health needs: What is driving hospital-community partnerships to address social determinants of health?SSM-Population Health, 18, 101129.
32.
PutnamR. (1993). The prosperous community: Social capital and public life. The American Prospect, 13(4), 35–42.
33.
RosenbaumS.KindigD. A.BaoJ.ByrnesM. K.O’LaughlinC. (2015). The value of the nonprofit hospital tax exemption was $24.6 billion in 2011. Health Affairs, 34(7), 1225–1233.
SantosT.LeeS.-Y. D.EastC.LindroothR. C. (2021). Can collaboration between nonprofit hospitals and local health departments influence population health investments by nonprofit hospitals?Medical Care, 59(8), 687–693.
36.
ScutchfieldF. D.PrybilL.KellyA. V.MaysG. P. (2016). Public health and hospitals: Lessons learned from partnerships in a changing health care environment. American Journal of Public Health, 106(1), 45–48.
37.
SinghS. R.YoungG. J.Daniel LeeS.-Y.SongP. H.AlexanderJ. A. (2015). Analysis of hospital community benefit expenditures’ alignment with community health needs: Evidence from a national investigation of tax-exempt hospitals. American Journal of Public Health, 105(5), 914–921.
38.
SongP. H.LeeS.-Y. D.AlexanderJ. A.SeiberE. E. (2013). Hospital ownership and community benefit: Looking beyond uncompensated care. Journal of Healthcare Management, 58(2), 126–141.
