Hospitals’ Collection and Use of Health-Related Social Needs Data

Presentation Time: 10:30 AM - 10:45 AM

Abstract Keywords: Data Standards, Population Health, Transitions of Care, Interoperability and Health Information Exchange, Data Sharing, Health Equity
Primary Track: Applications
Programmatic Theme: Public Health Informatics

In recent years, there has been greater focus on identifying and addressing health-related social needs—the immediate unmet material needs experienced by individuals that often emanate from social determinants of health—in inpatient settings, as hospitals are uniquely suited to help address social needs and assist with transitions of care. Social needs screening is prevalent among hospitals, but data collection in the electronic health record is often inconsistent or captured in a non-structured format that would limit opportunities for exchange and use of the data. This study uses nationally representative survey data to describe how social needs data are collected at US hospitals—whether data are collected routinely, in a structured format—and how this relates to different uses of data to support patient care and improve community and population health.

Speaker(s):
Chelsea Richwine
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

Author(s):
Chelsea Richwine - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; Vaishali Patel, PhD MPH - Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT; Jordan Everson - Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; Bradley Iott, MPH, PhD - University of Michigan;