Measuring Community Health Needs at the ZIP Code Level with Hospital Data

The places where we live, work, learn and play affect our health. The more that is known about these places, the better clinicians and community-based partners can identify and address the influence of these factors on health.

The concept of an individual’s ZIP code being a more powerful predictor of health than their genetic code is gaining widespread acceptance in the medical community. The population health movement also has led to an increased demand for meaningful community-based health and sociodemographic data among hospitals. Despite the many unknowns surrounding the future of the health care system, the move from volume to value is expected to continue. As a result, the demand for population health data is expected to grow.

The Hospital Industry Data Institute has been working to expand the availability of subcounty level community health data to improve health outcomes in Missouri by informing health improvement initiatives and the targeted allocation of scarce population health resources.

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