Charlestown residents will have their say about the community’s overall health by completing a Quality of Life survey. The survey can be taken online or in paper form.
The survey is available online through www.NewSpauldinngHospital.org by selecting tab Community Assessment. The survey is available in English, and will be available in Spanish next week. Many community organizations, including Mishawum Park Apartments, CharlesNewtowne, Bunker Hill Housing Development office, the Boston Public Library and the Kennedy Center, and the MGH Charlestown HealthCare Center have paper copies of the survey in multiple languages. Surveys can be placed in secure drop boxes.
The survey is part of the community-wide assessment of health concerns in Charlestown underway by Mass General and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospitals and continuing over the next six months. The survey follows a community forum that was held on December 1 that identified several factors that define a healthy community, including low crime/safe neighborhoods, good schools/place to raise children and access to quality health care.
Focus groups also will be held across the community over the next six weeks. As they are scheduled, focus group dates and locations can be viewed at www.NewSpauldingHospital.org.
Although the MGH has long conducted health assessments in partnership with nearby communities, the new federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act now requires it of all nonprofit hospitals. The goal of the health assessments is to produce a comprehensive picture of Charlestown’s overall health and a plan to improve it. An assessment committee representing multiple sectors of Charlestown has been created to help guide the process. Once data are gathered, Charlestown residents will prioritize their health concerns and develop an action plan.
About the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital a 196-bed facility, located in Boston serves as main campus for the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network which includes Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Cape Cod, two long term care facilities Spaulding Hospital Cambridge and Spaulding Hospital North Shore and two skilled nursing facilities, as well as twenty three outpatient sites throughout the Greater Boston area. Spaulding is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School as well as the official rehabilitation hospital of the New England Patriots. Spaulding is the only rehabilitation hospital in New England continually ranked since 1995 by U.S. News and World Report in its Best Hospitals survey with a #5 ranking in 2011. For more information, please visit www.spauldingrehab.org.
About the Center for Community Health Improvement (CCHI)
CCHI carries out its work in Chelsea, Revere, and Charlestown, where MGH has maintained healthcare centers for more than 40 years, as well as in Boston among youth, homeless persons and seniors. CCHI has partnered with the communities it serves to assess needs and create more than 35 programs that:
• Reduce and prevent substance abuse
• Tackle the obesity epidemic by increasing access to healthy food and physical activity
• Increase access to care for vulnerable populations such as immigrants and refugees, seniors, and homeless people
• Prevent cancers through early detection and screening
• Generate interest in science and health careers among youth