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Turning Data into Action for Community Health
Holyoke Medical Center is committed to addressing the health and wellness needs of its community. However, before partnering with mySidewalk, their Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs) were static reports that were hard to understand, full of statistics, jargon—making it difficult for both hospital teams and the public to understand what the needs were in their community. Wanting a more effective way to communicate and act on local health needs, Holyoke Medical Center turned to mySidewalk for a solution
The Challenge
Complex, Hard-to-Use Reports
Like many hospitals, Holyoke Medical Center relied on traditional CHNAs—long, text-heavy documents that were difficult for stakeholders to understand and use.
"Before using mySidewalk, we had been creating the traditional Community Health Needs Assessments—paper documents and PDFs. We weren’t sure how often they were picked up and read by people outside the hospital."
Holyoke Medical Center
Holyoke needed a way to make their data more dynamic, understandable, and actionable—not just for their internal teams but for the broader community.
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The Solution
A Data-Powered CHNA Dashboard
Holyoke Medical Center created a mySidewalk powered CHNA dashboard, transforming their assessment into an easy to use tool. The platform allowed them to:
✅ Access real-time, comprehensive data about their community
✅ Easily identify key insights, such as food insecurity and transportation barriers
✅ Share insights through compelling maps and visualizations
✅ Empower community partners with accessible data for grant applications and program planning
“This partnership has given us the opportunity to track our community health needs as data becomes available. It has also given us a clearer picture of local health needs by census tract or zip code and highlights the challenges our communities face around social determinants of health.”
Holyoke Medical Center
Now that they had the dashboard, Holyoke’s team quickly recognized gaps in food access and transportation, sparking action to address these concerns.
The Impact
Real Change for the Community
Holyoke Medical Center’s ability to visualize and analyze health data led directly to meaningful improvements.
📌 Launched a Farmers Market
In response to data revealing gaps in access to healthy food, the hospital introduced a weekly Farmers Market in June 2023, running from June to October. This initiative provides fresh, healthy food options to the community.
📌 Exploring a Food Pantry
The insights from the CHNA dashboard also sparked discussions about establishing a food pantry to support residents experiencing food insecurity.
📌 Empowering Community Organizations
The dashboard isn’t just helping Holyoke Medical Center—it’s also a resource for local organizations. By making their CHNA accessible online, community-based groups can now leverage the data for grant writing, program development, and advocacy efforts.
“Our CHNA dashboard gives us data, maps, and visuals that paint a powerful picture of our community's needs. It has taken our CHNA to the next level and helps us to plan our outreach and support within the community.”
Holyoke Medical Center
About Holyoke Medical Center
Holyoke Medical Center is on a mission to improve the health of all people in its community. Committed to the idea that health beings in its community, the team has turned to mySidewalk to create powerful & engaging data stories.
Why mySidewalk?
Holyoke Medical Center’s experience demonstrates the power of turning data into action. With mySidewalk, they moved beyond static reports and gained a dynamic, interactive tool that informs decision-making and drives real change.
If your organization is looking for a way to make data more accessible, actionable, and impactful—mySidewalk can help.
Ready to see how mySidewalk can transform your CHNA?
Let's chat.