As a nonprofit health care provider, Kaiser Permanente Northwest is dedicated to caring for the health needs of our communities, and addressing the social and environmental factors that create barriers to health.

In order to better understand the needs of each community we serve and to help strategically allocate resources, we regularly conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment. This process not only informs our community investments, helping us make a long-term, sustainable impact, but it also allows us to strengthen relationships with partner organizations and holds us accountable to our mission as we work together to improve community health.

Our process

A CHNA is conducted every 3 years to inform our community investments and meet federal regulatory obligations. The CHNA process provides a rigorous method for identifying high-priority health needs in our communities, and drives the development of strategies to address those needs.

During the CHNA process, information is collected using a variety of methods — public data and analytical mapping tools, online surveys, and listening sessions — to identify a list of community health needs. Needs are then prioritized by those that are most pressing and that Kaiser Permanente Northwest is best equipped to address.

Kaiser Permanente Community Health Needs Assessments page provides information about our implementation strategy, methods, findings, and planned response to the prioritized community health needs.

Kaiser Permanente Northwest’s priority health needs

Kaiser Permanente Northwest’s 2019 CHNA process illuminates 3 high-priority health needs that are most critical to the health and well-being of the communities we serve:

1. Access to health care — Access to high-quality, affordable, holistic, and culturally relevant medical and dental care
2. Economic opportunity — The ability to meet basic needs through access to housing, jobs, education, transportation, and healthy foods
3. Mental health and wellness — Access to mental health, addiction disorder, and behavior health care that is integrated with primary care, substance abuse treatment, community safety, and violence prevention

Healthy Columbia Willamette Collaborative

Kaiser Permanente Northwest’s CHNA process was conducted in association with the Healthy Columbia Willamette Collaborative, a public-private partnership comprised of 15 hospitals, 4 health departments, and 2 coordinated care organizations in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties of Oregon, and Clark County in Washington. Gratitude goes to the collaborative and the more than 20 local community organizations who provided invaluable input for our CHNA.