Skip to main content
Dot gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

HTTPS

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Community Health Improvement Assessment and Plans

An overview of the process

Since 1993, Wisconsin State Statutes have required communities throughout Wisconsin to develop and implement local health plans to address health conditions affecting their residents. This process has been referred to as the "Community Health Improvement Process," named partly due to the resulting health status changes in a community and the people who live there.

Local health departments are required by Wis. Stat. ch. 251.05 to:

  1. Regularly and systematically collect, assemble, analyze, and make available information on the health of the community; including statistics on health status, community health needs, and epidemiological and other studies of health problems.

  2. Develop public health policies and procedures for the community.

  3. Involve key policymakers and the general public in determining and developing a community health improvement plan that includes actions to implement the services and functions specified under Wis Stat. § 250.

  4. Submit data, as requested, to the local public health data system established by the department.

Additional requirements in community health assessments and planning are found in Wis. Admin. Code ch. DHS 140.04.

To guide the discussion, a tool some have found helpful is the state health assessment and plan. The Community Health Assessment can be framed around the same areas as the state health assessment, including information on local, state, and national morbidity, mortality, health behavior, social, and economic indicators. Community data is compared to the national Healthy People and Wisconsin goals.

A team of community representatives is formed to:

  • Review health conditions and their modifiable risk factors that affect community residents.
  • Identify community strengths and resources that can be built upon to address given health conditions.
  • Prioritize health conditions that affect residents.
  • Develop goals, measurable objectives, and implementation strategies to address the top health priorities.
  • Incorporate health-plan goals and strategies into day-to-day activities of community partners.
  • Annually review progress on goals, objectives, and strategies.

Community representatives should only review enough data to decide if the health priority is a top concern for their residents without over-burdening them with information that is better used in targeting implementation initiatives.

Community representatives determine variations to the process and information discussed. Depending on the community, template data may be augmented with data only found locally, including data from school and opinion surveys, environmental health programs, and local health providers.

For more information or assistance on Community Health Improvement Assessments or Community Health Plans in your region, please contact your Region's Public Health Strategist:

Division of Public Health resources that may be helpful in community health assessments can be found on the City, County and Regional Data page or the program-specific websites accessible through the Topics A-Z at the top of the page.

Last revised June 13, 2023