CHA/CHIP Implementation and Project Team Coordination

Quick Answer: A Community Health Assessment (CHA) is a systematic process to identify health needs and assets in a population, while a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) is the long-term strategic plan that addresses prioritized needs. Together they form the foundation for accredited public health practice and require coordinated multi-sector partnerships.

Implementing a Community Health Assessment (CHA)

A Community Health Assessment (CHA) is a state or local health department's systematic examination of community health status, needs, and assets. The CHA is a core requirement for Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) accreditation and must be conducted at least every five years. The assessment identifies health problems, risk factors, health disparities, and community assets, and it produces data that drives priority-setting for the CHIP.

The CHA implementation process typically follows these phases:

1. Engage the community and partners — convene hospitals (nonprofit hospitals must conduct Community Health Needs Assessments under IRS Section 501(r)), Federally Qualified Health Centers, coalitions, and community members to ensure broad representation.
2. Collect and analyze data — use quantitative sources (vital statistics, BRFSS, census data, surveillance systems) alongside qualitative sources (focus groups, key informant interviews, community surveys) to capture both measured health indicators and lived experience.
3. Identify health issues and disparities — prioritize based on magnitude, severity, feasibility of intervention, and community concern, paying attention to equity and disproportionate burden.
4. Communicate findings — produce a CHA report that is accessible to stakeholders and the public, using plain language and data visualization.
5. Use findings to inform the CHIP — the CHA feeds directly into priority selection for the improvement plan.

The MAPP framework (Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships), developed by NACCHO and CDC, is the most widely used CHA/CHIP planning framework in the United States. It includes four assessments: Community Themes and Strengths, Local Public Health System Assessment, Community Health Status Assessment, and Forces of Change Assessment. The intersection of these four assessments informs strategic priorities that no single assessment could identify alone.

A common implementation challenge is treating the CHA as a document to produce rather than a process that engages the community. PHAB reviewers and community partners look for evidence of authentic engagement — community members involved in priority-setting, not merely data subjects.

Implementing a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP)

A Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) is a long-term (typically 3-5 year), systematic strategic plan addressing the priorities identified in the CHA. It defines measurable objectives, evidence-based strategies, accountable partners, timelines, and resource needs. The CHIP is also a PHAB accreditation requirement and must be updated at least every five years.

CHIP implementation steps include: priority selection (using CHA data and community input to choose 3-5 focus areas), objective setting (SMART objectives tied to measurable health outcomes), strategy selection (evidence-based interventions from the Community Guide, CDC's What Works for Health, or County Health Rankings Roadmaps), action planning (defining who does what by when with specific deliverables), implementation (executing the strategies with partner organizations), and monitoring and evaluation (tracking process and outcome indicators against targets, with quarterly or annual review cycles).

A well-constructed CHIP links each priority to at least one SMART objective, each objective to at least one evidence-based strategy, and each strategy to a named accountable partner with a defined timeline. Gaps in this chain — a priority with no objective, an objective with no evidence-based strategy, a strategy with no accountable partner — are the most common quality deficiencies.

Coordinating Communication Across Project Team Members

Coordinating communication across project team members is a distinct NBPHE Domain 8 task. Effective project team coordination requires establishing communication plans that define: who receives what information, in what format, at what frequency, and through what channel. A RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) clarifies roles for each task and decision point, preventing duplication and accountability gaps.

Coordination tools include regular team meetings with structured agendas, shared project tracking dashboards, shared document repositories with version control, and clear escalation pathways for issues and risks. Status reporting should follow a consistent template: accomplishments since last report, upcoming milestones, risks and blockers, and decisions needed from leadership.

A common failure mode is siloed communication — where each partner organization receives information only relevant to its own tasks and lacks visibility into the broader program context. This leads to duplicated effort, missed dependencies, and reduced accountability. Effective coordination ensures all team members understand how their work connects to overall program objectives and where their deliverables intersect with others'. For CHA/CHIP processes specifically, coordination must bridge clinical partners, community organizations, government agencies, and residents — each with different communication norms, technical literacy, and information needs. Meeting cadence should be calibrated to project phase: weekly during implementation launches, biweekly during steady-state operations, and monthly during monitoring phases, with ad hoc huddles for emerging issues.