Kansas Health Matters is introducing a new function called the Data Scoring Tool to help users prioritize the health needs of their community. Users are currently able to compare their community’s data to other counties, state and national values, Healthy People 2030 targets, or past data for each indicator.

The new tool, using methodology developed by the Healthy Communities Institute, summarizes all possible comparisons for each indicator and then ranks the indicators based on how they compare to other areas, health targets, and past data. Each indicator gets a score from 0 to 3, which represent best and worst outcomes, respectively. Communities can then use their scores to inform a prioritization process, allowing them to see which areas they are performing well in and which have room for improvement.

This tool is a helpful way to simplify and rank the data; however, it should not be the only consideration when prioritizing health issues for a community health improvement plan. The community’s perception of priority issues should also be taken into consideration when setting priorities. A community’s perception of what’s important is key to getting buy-in on improvement strategies and can influence whether actions are successful. See additional resources for prioritization here.   

To see a sample output, click here.

To see the general methodology to calculate these results, click here. 

If you have any additional questions, or wish to request the Data Scoring Tool for your community organization, please visit the ‘Contact Us’ section of Kansas Health Matters and use ‘Data Scoring Tool’ as the subject of your message.