Study to assess the health needs of 29 North Central Mass. communities

Photo | Grant Welker UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital in Clinton

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Heywood Healthcare and UMass Memorial Health Care are joining to help study the health needs of 29 cities and towns across northern Central Massachusetts.

The two hospital networks are working with the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission on a community health needs assessment it conducts every three years, a process relying on residents filling out an anonymous survey.

Residents will be asked if they use a primary care physician for routine care, and how positively or negatively they view the effect on health of hospitals, community recreational assets, transportation networks or school systems. Other questions ask about how they receive their medical information or how common health issues, from cancer to mental health to substance abuse, have improved or worsened in the past few years. The study is expected to identify any new challenges stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.

Heywood's Athol and Heywood hospitals are helping to complete the study along with UMass Memorial's HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital.

Heywood will help gauge the needs of its 15-community primary service area, which stretches from Westminster to Erving. HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, which has campuses in Clinton and Leominster, serves a 14-community area from Ashburnham to Harvard.