ORH Mapping and Analysis Project

The Oregon Office of Rural Health (ORH) launched the CHNA Mapping and Analysis Project in 2025, designed to make community health needs assessments (CHNAs) more accessible and actionable. 

ORH analyzed every hospital CHNA in Oregon, developing executive summaries and identifying key topics and themes across five categories:

1. Type of health care that is difficult to access;
2. Common barriers to care and gaps in service;
3. Needs of each community;
4. Community and organizational strengths; and
5. Priorities of the hospital.

The current project, updated in 2026, includes hospital CHNAs and county public health community health assessments (CHAs). A future phase will incorporate coordinated care organization (CCO) CHAs and community health improvement plans (CHIPs).

Explore the Data

To make these findings easier to interpret and apply, ORH developed interactive Tableau maps that display the topics identified in CHNAs and CHAs across Oregon. These maps show which topics each report identified—and which they did not—offering a unique, statewide view of health needs, challenges and strengths. Users can filter by category, explore by topic and compare patterns across regions to visualize local and statewide trends.

About CHNAs

Nonprofit hospitals, including all 25 Oregon Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), maintain their tax-exempt/charitable status under section 501(c)(3) of Federal Internal Revenue Code by providing benefit to the community that they serve. The IRS requires they publicly show community benefit by conducting a community health needs assessment (CHNA) and adopting an implementation strategy to meet identified needs. The CHNA must be done once every three years and can be done in collaboration with other clinical, public health or population health organizations, with opportunities for public participation. 

This list includes every Oregon nonprofit hospital, its location, whether it has a CAH designation or not, and notes if the CHNA was completed in partnership with the local public health department (LPHD).

About CHAs and CHIPs

Coordinated care organizations (CCOs), local public health authorities (LPHAs), nonprofit hospitals and Tribal health departments are key partners in health improvement at the local level. Oregon law (ORS 414.577) requires CCOs to work with LPHAs and local hospitals to conduct a CHA and develop a community health improvement plan (CHIP) every five years. CCOs must also invite Tribal health departments to participate if the Tribe has a CHA or is in the process of developing one.

CHAs help identify key strengths and opportunities for improvement by collecting data from community members and primary data sources. CHAs must address demographics, health status, disparities, leading causes of death and injury, and social drivers of health. This information is then paired with a CHIP that addresses community health issues identified by the CHA. 

Contact

Email Stepha Dragoon with any questions.