In the summer of 2019, the UNITE group published another Community Health Needs Assessment for Washtenaw County. Some 131,000 patients were screened for social needs that are closely related to health outcomes at Michigan Medicine, St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, and St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea. Almost 20 percent of those who identified as Black/African American screened positive for at least one social need—a higher percentage than other racial/ethnic groups. The most common need was social isolation.
The assessment would be used to inform the hospitals’ implementation plans, later released in the fall of 2019. The implementation plans would include a list of steps each hospital would take, and a list of steps all hospitals would take jointly, to address community health issues with a special focus on health equity.