Health needs assessment: Needs assessment: from theory to practice

BMJ 1998;316:1448-1452 ( 9 May )

Education and debate

Health needs assessment

Needs assessment: from theory to practice

This is the third in a series of six articles describing approaches to and topics for health needs assessment, and how the results can be used effectively

Andrew Stevens, professor of public health, ^a Stephen Gillam, director, primary care programme. ^b

^a Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, ^b King's Fund, London W1M 0AN

Correspondence to: Professor Stevens

Series editor: John Wright

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The purpose of needs assessment in health care is to gather the information required to bring about change beneficial to thehealth of the population. It is generally, but not universally,accepted that this takes place within the context of finite resources.¹"Health gain" can therefore be achieved by reallocating resourcesas a result of identifying four factors:

Non-recipients of beneficial healthcare interventions (that is, unmet need);
Recipients of ineffective health care (and releasing the resources for unmet need);
Recipients of inefficient health care (and releasing resources for unmet need); and
Recipients of inappropriate health care (for whom the outcomes could be improved).

The subjects of healthcare needs assessment are the populations and patients who are recipients or potential beneficiariesof health care. Populations, of course, include individual patients.The assessment of individuals' needs may form part of the assessmentof a population's needs, but it may be costly and . . . [Full text of this article]

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