Local health departments, CMH release community health needs assessment

GREENE COUNTY―The Columbia County Department of Health, Greene County Public Health, and Columbia Memorial Hospital announced on Friday the publication of the “2025 Community Health Needs Assessment, 2025-2027 Community Services Plan, and the 2025-2030 Community Health Improvement Plan for Columbia and Greene Counties, NY and their Hospital.”

This document is the result of a collaboration between the three organizations to assess the overall health of Columbia and Greene Counties, identify key health issues and challenges, and develop a plan to address those challenges.  The plan that was created and captured in this publication will be implemented in the next few years, with the goal of achieving measurable improvements in the health and well-being of Columbia and Greene County residents.

The document begins with a demographic profile of each county, reviews the data for a number of health issues that help to describe the overall health and well-being of the residents in the two counties, identifies current health challenges and the factors that influence health, and inventories existing community assets and resources. It then outlines the process by which three priorities that would be the focus of the plan―Nutrition Security, Tobacco/e-cigarette Use, and Suicide—were selected.  Finally, it outlines specific strategies to address these priorities and how progress will be measured.

“The assessment and plan that has just been published reflects our interest in working in close collaboration with partners in both counties to reach our shared goal of improving the health and well-being of the community we all serve,” said Dorothy Urschel, CEO of Columbia Memorial Hospital.

“We’re excited to continue that collaboration as we now turn our attention to implementing the plan,” added Urschel.

The document fulfills multiple requirements of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) that local health departments and hospitals must periodically satisfy. The effort to produce a single document represents the third time that both health departments and the Hospital have worked closely together to identify the health needs of residents of the Twin Counties and identify strategies to address them.  This process is not only efficient but also promotes ongoing partnership and collaboration between the entities.

“When assessing the health of the community and creating a plan to improve it, we relied a great deal on input from community members who responded to a survey, as well as from a wide variety of organizations that serve the community.  That input was really crucial to us getting the fullest understanding of the community’s health status and priorities,” said Victoria McGahan, director of the Columbia County Department of Health.

Laura Churchill, director of Greene County Public Health, added, “Moreover, we made sure to examine data at the county and even neighborhood levels, so we understand the most pressing health issues and how they sometimes vary by place and by population.  Making sure that we have a comprehensive but also nuanced understanding of our area was a priority for us all.”

The 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment, 2025-2027 Community Services Plan, and the 2025-2030 Community Health Improvement Plan for Columbia and Greene Counties, NY and their Hospital can be found at www.albanymed.org/hudson/columbia-memorial-health-community-health-plans.