BOZEMAN — Every three years, Bozeman Health conducts a health needs assessment to identify Gallatin County's top health priorities.
"We then work over the next three years to address those needs," said Bozeman Health system manager of community health improvement, Kami Panepucci.
Until the end of the month, Panepucci said they will be asking residents of Gallatin Valley to put aside 15-minutes to complete a confidential survey, aimed at addressing local healthcare needs and improvements.
"The survey asks questions about your personal healthcare needs," she explained. "It asks things like if you struggle to find a primary care doctor, what your access to fruits and vegetables is, etc."
The Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) will help Bozeman Health determine what the community's top health priorities are and how they can enhance the healthcare system here over the next three years.
"We do the CHNA in collaboration with HRDC, One Health, and the Gallatin City-County Health Department," said Panepucci. "It's a really in-depth review of health needs."
Bozeman Health has been conducting the CHNA for over 15 years.
According to Panepucci, the last survey, which was conducted in 2023, discovered that topics like behavioral health, chronic disease prevention, and access to health services were some of the community's top demands for improvement.
"We've worked really hard over the past three years now to address the health needs that were found in 2023," she explained. "We've made some big impacts in behavioral health, like the opening of the adult inpatient psychiatric unit."
In September of 2025, Bozeman Health opened a 14-bed adult inpatient psychiatric unit at Deaconess Regional Medical Center — which Panepucci said was one of their biggest achievements from responses on the 2023 CHNA survey.
Now, it's time to figure out what the community's up-to-date heath needs are.
Bozeman Health, Gallatin City-County Health Department, HRDC and One Health invites the public to share their feedback from now until April 30.
To participate, Gallatin County residents who are at least 18 years old, can access the survey online.
In addition to the online CHNA survey, an independent research firm (Professional Research Consultants) will be conducting phone surveys until the end of May.
