During the summer and fall, Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) will be holding a series of community meetings to gather input from residents (particularly parents and youth) about what they see as priority issues related to the health and well-being of children and families in Boston and surrounding communities. Based on this input and other community health assessments, including the MAPP assessment BACH completed in 2014, BCH will make approximately $53 million available for community health initiatives over a 7-10 year period.

This money is a result of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s regulatory requirement known as Determination of Need (DoN). When a hospital is going to make a major capital improvement for clinical care, they are required to justify the need to the Public Health Council, (which is part of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health). If the Council approves the expenditure, the hospital must take the equivalent of 5% of what they will spend and apply it to community health. In this case, community health funding is connected to BCH’s planned construction of a new clinical care building on their campus at Longwood Medical Area and another new clinical building in Brookline.

Because of Boston Children’s unique focus on pediatric health, MDPH has agreed that the community health funds made available through this process be directed to system, environmental, policy and program initiatives that improve the health and well-being of children and families most in need.  There is an Advisory Committee of many stakeholders that is helping BCH staff make sure their process is as inclusive as possible and that the final priorities identified reflect community input. BACH, represented by its Director, David Aronstein, is on that committee because an important part of our mission is to influence resource allocations based on data and evidence of effectiveness in order to achieve racial and ethnic health equity. For more information about this planning process and community meetings  please go to Boston Children’s website, www.bostonchildrens.org/talktous, or contact John Riordan at 617-919-3064 or john.riordan@childrens.harvard.edu. Also feel free to email your thoughts and suggestions to TalkToUs@childrens.harvard.edu.