Bon Secours Begins Community Health Needs Assessment

Bon Secours St. Francis Health System has kicked off its 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), a survey taken every three years to identify the top health concerns in the Greenville County area.

“It helps us set and establish priorities for the coming years,” explained Bon Secours St. Francis Health System’s Community Health Director, Pastor Sean Dogan. “It’s important to be in line with what is happening in our community so we can work collaboratively with other community groups to make sure we’re supporting those needs in every way possible.”

The assessment asks for community input on items ranging from local health resources, barriers to care, and gaps in services to trends regarding health and healthy lifestyles.

“We want to get people’s thoughts on our community’s health – do they have access to healthy food? To recreational areas where they can get physical activity? Can they get into see their doctor or afford their prescriptions?”

The top three focus areas identified during the last assessment, conducted in 2019, were homelessness, poor access to health services, and addiction.

“It’ll be interesting to see how some of the data plays out when we’re assessing people’s thoughts on access to health care and what they believe the capacity of the community is, because I’m not sure those questions would be answered the same way had we not had a pandemic,” said Dogan.

The results of this year’s survey will document what the top community needs are and guide the health system’s community benefit efforts as it plans and prioritizes those investments.

“We want to make sure people feel cared for, so we really try to get out there to hear what they have to say and then help meet those needs to the best of our ability. This assessment is meant to mobilize the entire community and create a response to things the data is showing us will help make people’s lives healthier.”