Student Consulting Center

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Sample Projects

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Sample Projects

Stephen Borders, Director of the SPNHA Student Consulting Center is a seasoned community researcher has engaged in a number of research projects in Kent County.   The following are several community-based research projects completed with student assistance over the past several years.

Kent County Early Childhood Indicators

A  project for First Steps of Kent County to develop and analyze a number of childhood indicators. These indicators were chosen as part of a process beginning in May 2010 to develop measures important to improving the lives of young children in our community. Four workgroups of community members came together to develop indicators
around four broad categories: physical and behavioral health, early care and education, parent education, and family support. Assisted by the Community Research Institute (CRI), these workgroups presented their recommendations to Kent County’s Great Start
Collaborative (GSC) in August. First Steps and the GSC then prioritized the recommended indicators in the fall of 2010 and commissioned CRI to begin developing these baseline indicators. To access the report - click on the icon below:

Kent County Early Childhood Indicators

Food Insecurity in Kent County

A project to evaluate and assess a number of initiatives in Kent County related to a 2008 study that made a number of recommendations related to Feeding America of West Michigan and ACCESS of West Michigan.  The project evaluated the progress made from the 2008 study and provided ongoing monitoring the overall emergency food system in Kent County in the face of the economic weakness, placing enormous strains on the emergency food network. To access the report - click on the icon below:

Reducing Food Insecurity in Kent County

Health Transportation Shortage Index

A project funded by the Children's Health Fund through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation - this research examined children's transportation barriers to primary health care services. Transportation barriers to healthcare services remain a frequently cited, but poorly understand phenomenon. Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), we examined children’s emergency department (ED) admissions for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSCs) by ZIP code in Texas.  ACSCs are frequently used as a proxy for appropriate access to primary healthcare services because with good preventive care, hospitalizations should be avoided.  Among the study findings were that the presence of transportation barriers and proximity to FQHCs are highly associated with ACSC rates while the greater availability of active PCPs has no impact.  By understanding the spatial relationships between transportation barriers and primary care access, important factors associated with elevated ACSC rates can be identified and mapped using GIS.   Policy makers can then target these areas to improve the availability of non-emergency medical transportation and/or deploy new healthcare resources. To access the report - click on the icon below:

Health Transportation Shortage Index

Community Health Needs Assessments

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (signed into law on March 23, 2010) imposes new requirements on tax-exempt hospitals. One such requirement is that each of these hospitals must conduct a community health needs assessment at least once every three taxable years and adopt an implementation strategy to appropriately address the needs identified by the assessment. The assessment itself must take into account input from a broad cross-section of the community served by the hospital, including those with special knowledge of or expertise in public health, and be made widely available to the public. To access the report - click on the icon below:

Limestone Medical Center Needs Assessment