Health Compass Milwaukee, Shared Community Health Needs Assessments Inform Public Health Partners’ Priorities, Implementation, and Data
The Southwest Suburban Health Department (SWSHD) will soon publish its 2025 annual report for the Village of West Milwaukee. For the localized, community-level data necessary to develop an impactful roadmap and report, West Milwaukee, like many other local health departments and municipalities, leveraged Health Compass Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership (MHCP) Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA).
“The municipality-specific CHNA data on Health Compass has been a critical resource. It allowed us to conduct a meaningful pulse check on our current Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) priorities,” said Becca Marszalkowski, Public Health Strategist, Southwest Suburban Health Department. “Through the data, we’ve been able to see strong evidence that our focus areas — substance use, mental health, and community safety/violence prevention — remain at the forefront of residents’ health concerns.”
Health Compass Milwaukee is a one-stop resource for trusted, comprehensive health-related data about Milwaukee County residents and communities. The site offers up-to-date demographic, health, and determinants data, including primary data from the MHCP shared CHNA, most recently completed in 2024.
“Our goal is for our community and partners, like West Milwaukee, to have easy access to the data needed to develop strategic, data-driven health improvement plans and track results,” said Justin Rivas, Director of Community Health Initiatives. “Over the last few years, MHCP leaders have worked hard to improve the data on Health Compass, integrate more primary CHNA data, and allow for a greater level of stratification, mapping, and customization of the data to any organization’s specific service area or target population. It is not only a critical resource for health care and public health, but also used by many local community-based organizations, non-profits, academic partners, and community members.”
Health Compass Milwaukee is sponsored by the four MHCP health system members – Ascension Wisconsin, Aurora Health Care, Children’s Wisconsin, and Froedtert Health. They produce the shared CHNA every three years along with the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services and the City of Milwaukee Health Department.
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