Research

The needs assessments carried out by the Council are still the definitive documents cited by outside organizations studying Orange County health care, most recently in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Community Snapshot Project - Capturing Health System Change.

The Council helped to set up a Research Collaborative, which is now staffed by the Country Health Care Agency and has developed "rules of engagement" with researchers, both university-based and private sector independents. The Council seeks to develop standards and common terms so that health research undertaken by Collaborative members will be compatible, replicable and generalizable, with the aim of comparing "apples with apples" 

In developing its Action Plan the council contracted with researchers from two universities through The Collaborative, published a compilation of health research and hospital public benefit plans, and is participating together with the Healthcare Association of Southern California (HASC), CalOPTIMA, the County Health Care Agency and many of the Council's member organizations, in developing a county-wide health needs assessment, health mapping and health care monitoring systems.