Exploring the Role of Community Social Capital in Not-for-profit Hospitals' Decision to Engage Community Partners in the Community Health Needs Assessment Process.

Abstract

Not-for-profit hospitals (NFPs) frequently partner with community organizations to conduct internal revenue service-mandated community health needs assessment (CHNA), yet little is known about the number of partnerships that hospitals enter into for this purpose. This article uses "American Hospital Associations' 2020 Annual Survey" data to examine hospital-community partnerships around the CHNA and the role that community social capital defined as, "the networks that cross various professional, political and social boundaries to reflect community level trust needed to pursue shared objectives" plays in hospitals' choices to partner with community organizations for the CHNA. After controlling for a set of hospital, community, and state characteristics, we found that hospitals present in communities with higher social capital were likely to partner with more community organizations to conduct CHNA. Greater social capital may thus promote community health by facilitating the partnerships NFPs develop with community organizations to conduct the CHNA.