Community Health Needs Assessment & Implementation Plan: Fill & Download for Free

Absolutely unacceptable. If true, they are also ignorant.This data could have drawn from admissions data that is published by CMS /Medicare or public relations data or Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs) that are required to be prepared in accordance by IRS regulation for non-profit hospitals of which the majority in the USA are.

The country’s men in white are out on the streets, protesting against a seemingly harmless and welfare promoting bill. What problem do we have? Why are we creating unavailing roadblocks in the government ‘s path for providing universal healthcare?Let's review the Provisions under the bill:1 . The bill will set up a National Medical Commission (NMC) consisting of 25 members appointed by the central government out of which 5 members would be elected and rest nominated.2. The NMC is supposed to frame policies for regulation of healthcare professionals, assess requirements, ensure compliance to the SMC (State medical council) and regulation of fees in private colleges.3 . Medical Advisory Council: the council is supposed to advise for “minimum standards” of medical education and ensure “quality” doctors are being produced.4. Community health providers: NMC will grant limited license for quacks to practice medicine. This will legalise 3.5 lakh quacks as of now! (the bill says that quacks no more than 1/3rd the number of doctors shall be legalised).5. NEXT (National Exit Test): To “standardise” medical education throughout the country, the final professional exam will be replaced by NEXT which will also serve for admission to PG courses for specialisation.Views and Analysis:The NMC bill is inherently hypocritical. At one side, it talks about setting medical standards in the country and on the other, it wishes to legalise quacks- a dumbwitted proposition. Many colleges in India are producing embarrassingly inept and negligent doctors. NMC, by setting up NEXT will solve this problem in theory.Wait. What will happen in the real world? The low quality doctors will re-attempt the exams a few times and pass. That’s it. Ultimately, these people studied medicine after finishing of the 4.5 years of college. What’s the need of colleges then? The problem is deeply rooted in the very system of the nation- the dearth of adequate funds and facilities, public attitude and a plethora of reservations. Students, according to castes, creed and states, get admission to colleges at very low scores at UG level itself. States like Karnataka have an excess of medical colleges- that’s why students who just clear NEET UG by margin get admitted by state quotas (cherry topped by others) and become laggard MBBS students. In many places, professors and students skip lectures and postings alike- with no regulators, the problems become malignant.The government cleverly masked the underlying issues by introducing NEXT- a namesake reform for collecting votes.Besides, NEXT will create undue pressure on the already exhausted medical student, making medical colleges a breeding ground for depressions, suicides and a cynical loss of creativity.Further, the final exam will be converted to an MCQ paper- doing away with Viva and practical work. How will clinical skills be tested? Students will start focussing on theory, neglecting the importance of hands-on experience. This would create an army of highly educated albeit useless doctors.To further cover up its sheer inability to produce educational facilities, the government proposes to legalise quacks by giving them a fancy name “Community health providers”. The government psyche is that the CHPs will provide “limited” day-to-day access to healthcare in rural settings while more complex diseases will be dealt by “quality standardised” medical professionals.How is even possible? Medicine doesn’t work this way!What appears to be a “a small cough” treated with soothing agents might be producing sputum having characteristics of lung cancer- something apparent only to a trained MBBS doctor! A throbbing headache might be solved with Aspirin while it may be the tip of an iceberg of life-threatening medical conditions! How can such life and death differentials be left on untrained CHPs?Ultimately, Who’ll suffer?The poor, of course.This was my version. Thanks.

I would be surprised to find a not-for-profit hospital that didn't fulfill the letter of this Federal law, if not the spirit. If you want to check out a particular hospital, try this:Go to www.guidestar.org and register. It's free.Search for the hospital. If it's part of a system, there may only be one listing, for the system as a whole.Click on the name of the hospital, and then click on the tab with the Form 990. This is the report every 501(c)(3) files with the IRS.Open the latest one; it's a PDF file.Go to Schedule H. This is where they should document adherence to the requirements you're interested in.Many hospitals also publish the required Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) on their websites. Here's one, as just a random example: http://www.yakimamemorial.org/pdf/about/community-hna-2013.pdf