Introduction
Introduction
The 2026 Renown Health and Northern Nevada Public Health Community Health Needs Assessment( CHNA) represents a comprehensive, data-driven examination of the health landscape across Washoe County, Nevada. This assessment fulfills Renown Health’ s commitment as a not-for-profit health system to understand and respond to community needs in alignment with IRS Section 501( r)( 3) requirements, which mandate that nonprofit hospitals conduct a CHNA at least once every three years.
This assessment also supports the Public Health Accreditation Board( PHAB) accreditation process by demonstrating Northern Nevada Public Health’ s ongoing use of data, community engagement, and collaborative planning to advance population health. This assessment provides a foundation for identifying community health priorities, informing strategic planning, and guiding public health action.
This report combines information collected directly from community members and information gathered from trusted data sources. Primary data consist of information collected directly from community members. Between September and November 2025, community members shared their experiences and opinions through surveys, focus groups, interviews, and conversations with local partners and stakeholders. Secondary data consist of information previously collected by trusted organizations. We reviewed data from more than 60 public health, population, and quality-of-life sources, including Nevada Tomorrow, the American Community Survey, the Nevada Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. By using both primary and secondary data, we gained a more complete understanding of the community’ s health needs, strengths, and challenges.
The CHNA employs an equity-centered framework, using tools such as the BARHII( Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative) framework and the CMS Health Equity Framework to ensure that social determinants of health and community disparities are placed at the center of the analysis. The Washoe County service area includes 27 ZIP code tabulation areas( ZCTAs) and serves a population of approximately 502,226 residents.
This assessment was developed as a partnership between Renown Health and Northern Nevada Public Health and reflects contributions from a broad coalition of community members, health system partners, faith communities, school districts, social service organizations, and local government agencies. The findings of this report will directly inform the development of Renown Health’ s 2026 – 2029 Implementation Strategy and Northern Nevada Public Health’ s Community Health Improvement Plan( CHIP), guiding community benefit investments, clinical programming, and collaborative initiatives across the region.
This report represents Renown Health and Northern Nevada Public Health ' s good-faith effort to accurately reflect community health data, stakeholder input, and organizational capacity at the time of publication. It is intended to serve as a strategic planning tool and a foundation for action.
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