The New York State Public Health and Health Planning Council (PHHPC) has established an ad hoc committee of organizations (including GNYHA) committed to health improvement that will design a new State health improvement plan. The plan will serve as the State’s guide for improving the health of all New Yorkers for the five-year period beginning in 2013. The State’s current health improvement plan, the Prevention Agenda for the Healthiest State, was launched in 2009 and will expire at the end of 2012.

As currently envisioned, the new State health improvement plan will provide updated community health need assessment data from the New York State Department of Health (DOH) and county health departments, identify statewide health improvement priorities for 2013–2017, and engage multi-sector public and private partners who will work toward the plan’s health improvement goals. For hospitals, the plan will provide a framework that builds upon the collaborative planning that took place among local health departments, hospitals, and hospital community partners under the Prevention Agenda. To facilitate a coordinated launch of the new State health improvement plan, DOH will notify hospitals that the comprehensive Community Service Plans (CSPs) that would normally be due this fall will instead be due in 2013. Delaying the comprehensive CSP submission until 2013 will permit hospitals to use the updated public health status data that will be released with the new State plan. For 2012, hospitals will be asked to submit another CSP update report.

GNYHA will keep members apprised of the ad hoc committee’s work and help them work with the State to achieve the new plan’s health improvement goals.