Baptist Community Health Needs Assessment

Baptist Memorial Health Care is dedicated to the health and well-being of the many communities we serve across the Mid-South. We believe strongly in corporate citizenship and the importance of collaboration with local organizations to build stronger and healthier communities. To help ensure we address the needs of our communities, every three years we conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and develop Implementation Strategies (IS) for our service areas. These efforts help to ensure that our initiatives, activities and partnerships align with our communities’ greatest concerns and guide our community benefit investments.

Community engagement is integral to effective assessments of community health needs. To ensure our findings are reflective of all the people and issues within our service areas, we sought to engage and garner insight from historically underrepresented and underserved populations. We also reached out to agencies and organizations that represent and work with a variety of groups. This information informed our plans and will help us increase access to care and lead efforts that address underlying social determinants of health and health inequities.

Baptist’s CHNAs focuses on the primary service county(ies) of each Baptist Memorial Hospital to identify health trends and unique disparities within these communities. Hospitals with overlapping service areas were grouped into regions for comparisons of health and socio-economic data. Baptist currently has 23 affiliate hospitals serving residents in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. All of these hospitals are listed in the current CHNA, with the exception of one hospital in which Baptist is a minority partner. In 2025, we announced our intent to acquire OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville, Mississippi, MS and merge with Arkansas Methodist Medical Center in Paragould, Arkansas. These hospitals will be included in our 2028 CHNA.  

Request a Copy of a CHNA

To request a copy of a current CHNA, please click here.

About IRS 501(r) Regulation Requirements

The CHNA and supporting IS are conducted in a timeline and using an approach that complies with IRS Tax Code 501(r) requirements for not-for-profit hospitals as set forth by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). To learn more about IRS Code 501(r) requirements, please click here.

While compliance is hugely important, Baptist believes CHNAs have great value to our hospitals and communities beyond required reporting. They are vital tools to guide community health improvement activities as well as enhance care delivery, improve patient engagement strategies and direct population health management.

If you have a question, comment or would like to provide feedback on our CHNA, please fill out the form below.