Waukesha County and Local Partners to Conduct Collaborative Community Health Assessment Telephone Survey

Beginning July 25, 2020, local health partners, including Waukesha County Public Health, Ascension Wisconsin, Aurora Health Care, Children’s Wisconsin, Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin and ProHealth Care are urging residents to participate in a community health telephone survey. The Community Health Assessment (CHA) survey will provide valuable data for continued evaluation of community needs and help guide government, not-for-profit, and volunteer organizations as they fashion services to meet the most pressing health needs of the community. JKV Research, an independent research firm that specializes in community surveys, and Management Decisions (phone number: 414-774-0623), will be making calls to cell phones and landlines until they have reached 400 people allowing for results to be projectable to the county.

“The task of maintaining and improving the health of a community is a  collaborative effort among Waukesha County Public Health, our county residents, and key sectors of the community to include healthcare, government, nonprofits, business, education, and faith-based organizations”, said Benjamen Jones, Waukesha County Health Officer and Public Health Manager. “We understand that people hesitate to answer a call from a number they don’t recognize. Starting this Saturday and for the next week or so, take the call as it could be this important health assessment survey. By doing so, you can help shape the future of Waukesha County health improvements.”

The anonymous survey will take about 18 minutes to complete. No one from JKV Research or Management Decisions will ask for identifying information, such as social security number, banking account numbers, or other personal identifiers during the survey call. Questions will focus on issues such as access to primary care, health care coverage, substance use, smoking, vaping, nutrition, physical activity, cancer prevention, injury prevention, immunizations, children’s health, mental health, and chronic disease. The new aggregate data will supplement 2017 community health assessment data and will allow Waukesha County Public Health to analyze community trends over time. The summative results will be released to the public in early 2021. No individual data will be released.

The community health survey is aimed at meeting several objectives:

• Gathering local data to document health status related to the health priorities established by the state health plan.
• Identifying local health behaviors or risk factors that present opportunities for health promotion and health care cost reduction.
• Tracking the success of community health improvement activities.
• Allowing local health partners to document population health indicators to help guide health improvement efforts to improve community health in Waukesha County.