Every three years, as a non-profit health system, we study and assess our community health needs and then develop plans to address the highest priority issues. The reports generated by this nearly year-long effort are known as the CHNA and the CHIP. Our goal has been to continuously improve on this process, and for our 2022 CHNA, we made a few changes that we are excited to share.

For our 2022 assessment, we collaborated with the Interior Community Health Center and the Frontier Region of Alaska’s Division of Public Health to create a joint assessment that will help guide the work of all three organizations. Also new, we were able to access grant funds to carry out a survey of the general public in our region. The public survey, along with key-informant interviews, asked about how people are experiencing various aspects of health at this time.

2023-2025 Community Health Improvement Planning PrioritiesThe process for the CHNA involves researching national, state, and local health data in terms that help define the factors that support health and the indications that people are doing well or not-so-well with regard to health outcomes. We look at how “we” compare. The next step is to take that information and balance it with what we know and understand to be true for our community. We do that by involving a Community Advisory Committee (CAC) and having this group consider the research, the survey data, and their shared point of view. The CAC is made up of representatives from organizations that serve the health and social service needs of the Fairbanks area. This group helps define the priorities for the upcoming years based on what they review and consider. They rank the many needs identified against criteria such as seriousness, size, equity, and impact. Their recommendations are then shared with our FHP CHNA Steering Committee and then the FHP Board of Trustees.