Collecting social determinants of health information at scale is just one challenge for providers, but training staff on how to collect that data sensitively and then what to do to act on it at scale is another. challenge, says Dr. Hilary Hatch, a clinical psychologist. and Chief Clinical Officer at Phreesia, a patient engagement technology provider.
“SDOH is just one of many different things that providers have to do every year. That becomes one more thing and it just takes another minute of your time, but it’s impossible, it’s really challenging,” she explains.
Hatch leads the development of clinical programs and research partnerships and has contributed to the National Quality Forum’s efforts to address social determinants of health care utilization. As of January 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has required health care organizations to screen for five social risk factors.
Working with NQF, Hatch and her team looked at ways to scale SDOH without adding burden to healthcare providers, developing and testing digital tools that are easy to use for patients, protect their privacy and offset the significant demands on healthcare workers.
By assessing a patient’s level of ability to use digital tools and understanding which ones most need the help of a community health worker, they were able to halve the FQHC’s hands-on SDOH workload.
Hatch found that the anxiety patients may experience with depression and SDOH screenings decreases when this is done digitally. When they answer questions electronically, they are more likely to identify an unmet social need.
The data from digital screenings has also helped individualize patient care. For example, analyzes showed that the FQHC was able to reduce barriers to medication adherence.
In this episode of HIMSSCast, Hatch discusses how staff worked with a Federally Qualified Health Center to identify patients with social needs and then develop ways to address them at scale.
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Talking points:
- Patient activation measures explained
- Patient privacy concerns about SDOH questions have been reduced thanks to digital screening
- Develop care plans based on patient activation assessments
- Where SDOH technologies are going
- Conduct analyzes to improve public health
More about this episode:
HIMSCast: Making SDOH interventions a reality
EHRA recommends simplifying standards to scale SDOH
Scale SDOH initiatives with analytics and coordinated workflows
SDOH is critical to the national public health data infrastructure
ONC creates SDOH toolkit for communities
Andrea Fox is editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.