Phoebe assessing community needs

ALBANY, Ga. — Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s community benefits subcommittee currently is looking at where best to allocate monetary resources, which hinges on the completion of a needs assessment plan.

Because of a new requirement from the Internal Revenue Service, the hospital has until July 31, 2013, to complete a community needs assessment, which would have to be done every three years to avoid a fine of $50,000.

The benefit plan the IRS requires to be in place is expected to be board-approved and to address prioritized health needs and problems identified in the assessment.

At its meeting Wednesday, the subcommittee did an overview of the grant application process that a non-profit would have to go through to receive funding through Phoebe Community Visions.

In the next few months, officials expect to be able to start the application process based on health-related needs. The hospital staff will receive the applications and make a recommendation, and the subcommittee will make a determination on how the money is allocated based on what is perceived as the greatest needs.

If approved for a grant, a recipient would report to Phoebe on what had been done with the money, officials say.

As part of an effort to get a better idea of what the priorities should be, a data center is expected to go live sometime between April 20 and May 1 on the hospital’s website that will give statistics on more than 100 health indicators for the five counties in Phoebe’s primary coverage area.

A presentation was given of the data center at the subcommittee’s meeting, which has a color coding of green, yellow and red to give the public an idea on how the area is doing in a particular area, with green being the best and red being the worst.

One of the sources for this information is the Georgia Department of Public Health’s OASIS portal.

“We are very excited about this,” said Jackie Ryan, vice president of corporate strategy at Phoebe. “This is a very rich tool.”

The subcommittee, for which Ron Wallace — one of the hospital board’s newest members — is chairman, is expected to meet quarterly. The next scheduled meeting is set for June 18.