Addressing Community Health Needs

At Children's Hospital Colorado, we know that every child's well-being is deeply connected to the health and wellness of the community. We understand that we can't provide complete care for our children if we don't also understand and care for our local neighborhoods; nor can we support thriving kids without nurturing thriving communities.

This is why we work to assess, quantify, validate and prioritize the needs of families and children in our area, then develop responsive plans, programming and interventions designed to address those needs and benefit our communities. Find a complete list of our needs assessments, implementation plans and community benefit activities below.

Here, we know that children have many influences in their lives and that every adult who comes into contact with a child has a unique perspective on what that child needs to thrive. To help us understand how to best serve these kids, every three years we get to work identifying the needs and priorities of our surrounding communities. This includes collecting public health and demographic data, interviewing public health experts and healthcare providers, conducting focus groups with caregivers, and gathering input from hundreds of parents and caregivers through online surveys.

Our work culminates in a report called a Community Health Needs Assessment, or CHNA. Thanks to these assessments, we have better insight into the challenges facing children in our area.

Community Health Needs Assessments

We're pleased to share our latest assessments, where we identify child health priorities and a framework in which to guide our work.

• 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment for North Campus, Broomfield (.pdf)
• 2021 Community Health Needs Assessment for Anschutz Medical Campus* (.pdf)
• 2021 Community Health Needs Assessment for Colorado Springs (.pdf)

*A joint assessment of Children’s Hospital Colorado licensed hospital facilities at Anschutz Medical Campus, South Campus and Parker Adventist Campus (Parker Adventist Campus location closed, effective Dec. 20, 2021)

The CHNA focuses on identifying and quantifying community health needs. It's followed by a plan to for addressing those needs called a Community Health Implementation Plan.

Community Health Implementation Plans

In response to findings from the 2021 Community Health Needs Assessments, Children's Colorado developed Community Health Implementation Plans defining how we will address these child health challenges over the next three years. The strategies and programs outlined demonstrate our ongoing commitment to children, families and community partnerships.

• Community Health Implementation Plan for Anschutz Medical Campus (.pdf)
• Community Health Implementation Plan for Colorado Springs (.pdf)

The Community Health Implementation Plan fulfills the Affordable Care Act requirement to develop a plan to meet the needs identified in our Community Health Needs Assessment.

We welcome continued feedback both on the content of these reports and our strategies for addressing community health needs. Please email comments, questions and suggestions to CommunityBenefit@childrenscolorado.org.

As a nonprofit pediatric hospital, our bottom line is kids. This means that any positive hospital revenue is reinvested into the health and well-being of children. We share these activities annually in a document called a Community Benefit Report.

Annual Community Benefit Reports

Putting these activities into numbers isn't easy. However, in 2020, Children's Colorado reported more than $292 million in community benefit activities — that is, activities we conducted as a hospital that went beyond caring for patients and made an impact on our community at large. This includes everything from dental screening and immunization clinics for kids, to financial counseling and car seat education for parents.

• 2020 Annual Community Benefit Report (.pdf)

Colorado Hospital Accountability Community Benefit Reports

• 2021 Hospital Accountability Community Benefit Report for Anschutz Medical Campus (.pdf)
• 2021 Hospital Accountability Community Benefit Report for Colorado Springs (.pdf)

Share your perspective at a community event

We also host events and opportunities for community members to share their experiences and provide input about child health needs. Please bookmark this web page and check back frequently to learn about upcoming conversations and community health events.