Embedding Community in Health: Community Engagement Standards for Community Health Planning in Massachusetts
Conference Presentation:
In January 2017, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) released a pioneering revision of the Determination of Need (DoN) regulation. As a health care cost containment measure, DoN regulates health care systems, hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics pursuing capital improvement projects as well as certain equipment and technologies. Through the revised regulation, the Department is further defining and creating a structure for community engagement in community health planning processes throughout the state. This structure not only provides the department the opportunity to better monitor planning processes but also tie those planning processes to the regularly performed Community Health Needs Assessments and Community Health Improvement Processes outlined in the Affordable Care Act and by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Community Benefits Guidelines.
The DoN community engagement guidelines build off of the International Association of Public Participation’s Spectrum of Public Participation, Community Health Improvement Planning frameworks and s incorporate tools from Community Based Participatory Research. The goals of the Community Engagement guidelines are four fold and as follows: 1) ensure community members are engaged appropriately throughout community health planning efforts and involvement is seen as an ongoing relationship, 2) provide opportunities for transparent decision making processes, 3) ensure accountability for planned community health work, and 4) align with the Social Determinants of Health by ensuring appropriate stakeholder representation to better understand and influence those determinants (e.g. educators and education, housing developers and housing, or business owners and employment).