achd

Community Health Assessment and Improvement Plans

Allegheny County Health Department

Economic Strategy

The Allegheny County Health Department (Pittsburgh, PA) serves over 1.2 million county residents. Its mission is to protect, promote, and preserve the health and well-being of all Allegheny County residents, particularly the most vulnerable.

In September 2017, the health department became a nationally accredited public health department. As a part of the reaccreditation process, every five years, the health department must complete an update to the community health assessment and community health improvement plan to ensure that priority health concerns of the communities served are being addressed and progress is being made on previous goals.

Our Approach

Fourth Economy supported the development of the community health assessment and community health improvement plan for the Allegheny County Health Department. The project included data analysis and visualization to update the County’s health indicators for priority health focus areas. In addition to the analytical work, Fourth Economy delivered a robust and inclusive community outreach and engagement plan to gather feedback from County residents, which identified partner and service organizations providing resources for underserved and represented county residents through various in-person and online feedback platforms like community meetings, surveying, and expert focus groups. Finally, Fourth Economy led the writing and design of the community assessment and improvement plans for the County’s 2022 reaccreditation process.

The Results

The collaborative effort was a marked success. With the support of Fourth Economy, the updated CHA and CHIP were meticulously designed to address priority health focus areas for over 1.2 million county residents and submitted as part of the County’s 2022 reaccreditation process. Our approach ensured that the needs of various demographic sectors of the county were captured, leading to the successful submission of the updated community health assessment and improvement plan. The collaboration was instrumental in delivering a project that fulfilled the necessary reaccreditation requirements and resonated with ACHD’s mission, reflecting the community’s diverse needs and setting a robust framework for future public health initiatives in Allegheny County.