Scalable CHNAs, Stronger Communities: How Northwestern Medicine Developed a Data-Driven Process
About the Customer
Northwestern Medicine is a leading healthcare system in Illinois, dedicated to improving health outcomes across both urban and rural communities. By leveraging data-driven insights, Northwestern Medicine is transforming its Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) process to identify and address social determinants of health (SDOH), optimize resource allocation, and have a positive impact on the communities they serve.
The Challenge
Northwestern Medicine needed a more efficient, comprehensive, and scalable CHNA process that they could align across their 11 hospitals and more than 200 locations to better understand and address community health and care gaps.
Without a more efficient and integrated approach, Northwestern Medicine risked delays in identifying and addressing critical health disparities.
Resource-Intensive Processes: Manual data collection and reporting slowed the ability to act on findings.
Fragmented SDOH Insights: The Northwestern Medicine team risked missing patterns across siloed data sets that failed to combine community intelligence on topics like housing, economic stability, and healthcare access.
Effective Communication: Complex health data was difficult to present to stakeholders in a clear, actionable format.
Scalability Across Diverse Regions: To address both urban and rural health needs, the Northwestern Medicine team needed a flexible, adaptable model that didn’t sacrifice a unified, system-wide view.
The Solution
After implementing Metopio’s analytics platform, Northwestern Medicine enhanced its CHNA process through:
A Streamlined CHNA Process: Automated data collection, analysis, and reporting combined with integrated qualitative and quantitative data that centers the community result in comprehensive CHNAs.
Leveraged Community Intelligence: Metopio provided actionable insights into housing, economic stability, and healthcare access and identified root causes for effective program development. The platform also pinpointed social and economic barriers to health, supporting Northwestern Medicine’s initiatives.
Improved Stakeholder Communication: User-friendly visualizations facilitated clearer presentation of CHNA findings, fostering alignment on health goals across leadership and frontline teams. Metopio’s collaborative features encouraged efforts to align and address community health needs.
A Standardized Model for Community Impact: Within Metopio, the Northwestern Medicine team developed a framework for implementing community health strategies across diverse populations. This framework is scalable across regions and able to adapt to both urban and rural challenges.
Metopio’s Impact
A 50% Reduction in CHNA Process Time: Streamlined workflows allowed Northwestern Medicine to complete CHNAs in half the time, accelerating community interventions.
Deeper Community Insights with SDOH Data: A holistic view of community health factors informed more precise interventions and improved strategic decision-making.
Enhanced System-Wide Engagement: Data visualizations improved communication, aligning stakeholders on health priorities across hospitals.
Improved Health Outcomes: Targeted investments in under-resourced areas advanced health equity, reduced barriers and better addressed community needs.
What Northwestern Medicine Says About Metopio
Metopio has revolutionized our approach to CHNAs and health equity. With their platform, we’ve been able to identify critical community needs and act faster, ensuring our efforts make the greatest impact for those who need it most.
Through data-driven insights, improved communication, and targeted interventions, Northwestern Medicine is driving meaningful change across Illinois.
““Metopio was not just a vendor—they were deeply embedded in planning, data collection, analysis, and community engagement. Northwestern leaned on Metopio from the beginning through final prioritization.””
Is your organization ready to use data to improve community health? Schedule your customized tour of Metopio today!