Western Idaho Collaborative Works on Community Health Atlas
The Idaho Oregon Community Health Atlas allows residents, community organizations, policymakers, researchers and public health stakeholders to access and use data to understand health disparities and drive change.
The project is a multi-agency initiative convened by the Western Idaho Community Health Collaborative (WICHC) with participation and funding from regional partner organizations like Central District Health, Southwest District Health, Saint Alphonsus Health System, St. Luke’s Health System, United Way of the Treasure Valley, Intermountain Health, and Weiser Memorial Hospital.
In the past, each organization conducted its own community health needs assessment every three years in response to federal requirements. For the first time in Idaho’s history, the data has been gathered as a joint community effort putting the organizations on the same assessment cycle. This unprecedented partnership is significant because they are collaborating to research and tackle pervasive issues in the community and avoid duplicating efforts, potentially leading to more successful outcomes and a greater impact.
The collaborative partnered with vendor Metopio to launch the Atlas, which is similar to the Cook County Health Atlas and the Chicago Health Atlas.
For example, the 2023 Greater Treasure Valley Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) represents a partnership to align several independent regional assessments to identify the health needs of more than half of Idaho residents. This collaborative approach used a social determinants of health framework to determine the top priorities of 10 counties in the Greater Treasure Valley region of Idaho. This framework defines health in the broadest sense and recognizes that SDoH factors such as employment, housing, and access to healthcare have an impact on the community’s health.
In this report, the Greater Treasure Valley Region includes Ada, Elmore, Boise, Valley, Gem, Adams, Canyon, Washington, Payette, and Owyhee Counties.
Upon analyzing and discussing the primary data, secondary data, and community feedback, a clear set of top priorities emerged for the Greater Treasure Valley region. The top three priorities identified by key stakeholders include:
- Safe, affordable housing and homelessness
- Behavioral health, including mental health and well-being and substance misuse
- Access to affordable healthcare, including oral and vision health
Bon Secours Mercy also has launched a community health data hub. The 2018 merger between Bon Secours and Mercy prompted the new community health team to develop a comprehensive data strategy, with both internal and external components. Part of that external data strategy was the idea for the community health data hub. The idea was to make this data available to the community members directly so that they can make decisions.
The dashboard features a focus on key priority areas for public health like the opioid epidemic, mental health, and chronic disease to help rally resources around these topics.
