Aspects of Social Determinants of Health: Acting on SDoH

Previous articles in this series introduced the importance of social determinants of health (SDoH) and explained how it can be captured and classified. In this article, I’ll show how many hospitals, payers, and other institutions are acting on that data. Of course, the staff of a clinic or hospital don’t go around looking for apartments the way they actively look for a long-term care facility. Instead, their case managers partner with community institutions to help patients. But the clinic or hospital is a crucial linchpin in connecting the patient to this help. According to Dr. Victor Lee, vice president of clinical informatics at Clinical Architecture, the job is harder because most community institutions lack the sophisticated digital systems that are commonplace in modern commercial institutions. According to Karl Ulfers, co-founder and vice president of growth at DUOS, governments offer excellent listings of resources with which care managers and clinicians can address housing, food, transportation, and other SDoH. For instance, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has 50 data sets pointing to available help; states and the Department of Veterans Affairs has other data sets. These are all highly structured and can be pulled into the DUOS system programmatically, although Ulfers says they have to alter the language and convert it bureaucratese to human-friendly text. Community-based programs also offer information about benefits on their web sites, alt...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Analytics/Big Data C-Suite Leadership Communication and Patient Experience Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Interoperability AdhereHealth Avanade Case Management CipherHealth Clinical Architecture ClosedLoop Source Type: blogs