Twin County Regional Healthcare Launces Comprehensive Study to Evaluate the Health Needs of the Community

Twin County Regional Healthcare Launces Comprehensive Study to Evaluate the Health Needs of the Community

Twin County Regional Healthcare (TCRH), in collaboration with other local health professionals and stakeholders, is building a road map to health for the people of the City of Galax, Carroll, and Grayson County, identifying public health needs, goals, objectives and priorities. The hospital has launched a comprehensive Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), which will provide a rich foundation for improving and promoting the health of each community member.

The CHNA is a systematic collection, assembly, analysis, and dissemination of information about the comprehensive health of the community. Its role is to identify factors that negatively affect the health of a population and determine the availability of resources with the community to adequately address those factors.

Twin County Regional Healthcare performed a CHNA three years ago and is now assessing where the community is and what still needs to be done. The assessment is expected to be finalized by the end of May. A report of the results will be presented to the community.

“Guided by the results of this important community assessment and the progress we’ve made since the last CHNA, we will soon have a more comprehensive understanding of the health needs of our community,” said Chief Executive Officer Sudandra Ratnasamy, MBA, FACHE of TCRH “This will help us focus our resources as we work towards making communities healthier.”

Twin County Regional Healthcare’s CHNA will use both existing and new data to assess local health needs and recommend possible improvement methods. Some of the data has already been collected through previous local, state and federal public health organizations.

In July, a community focus group will be conducted to seek input from local residents throughout this process. Community members, physicians and hospital employees will be surveyed about local health issues and what changes they would like to see in the community. That insight, along with the data, will be used to set priorities for health improvement.

“The survey will be looking at what the concerns are as seen through the eyes of the residents of the City of Galax, Carroll, and Grayson County, County,” said CEO Ratnasamy.

The information and data is being gathered by Strata, [HOSPITAL’s] research partner who will collect, quantify and interpret the data. The results will be shared with TCRH’s board of directors/trustees and administration to help them develop and refine the hospital’s programs and services to ensure the community's healthcare needs are met.

Once the data gathering is complete, a Community Health Summit will be scheduled. The summit will share the data collected in the CHNA and serve as a way to gather community input into the plan for health improvement.

“As we demonstrated with our last CHNA, our community assessment is not meant to produce a document that will not provide improved health,” CEO Ratnasamy said. “It is meant to create the continuation of an action plan to help us truly improve the lives of the people in our community.”

About Twin County Regional Healthcare:

Twin County Regional Hospital (TCRH) is the flagship of the Twin County Regional Healthcare delivery system, a Duke LifePoint Healthcare affiliate, centered on the mission “Making Communities Healthier®.  The hospital is in Galax, Virginia, the center of the Twin Counties of Grayson and Carroll Counties in Southwest Virginia.  Twin County Regional Hospital has been the anchor and the region’s leader of healthcare for over 50 years offering services such as acute care, inpatient behavioral health, cardiac rehab/cardio direct, cardiology, cardiopulmonary services, chronic disease management, diagnostic imaging, emergency services, intensive care, lab/lab direct, occupational health, orthopedics, rehabilitation services, stroke center, surgical services, neurology, urology, women’s health and birthing center and many other services. For additional information, please call 276.236.8181 or visit www.TCRH.org or find TCRH on Facebook.

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