1) What is your organization currently doing, planning to do, or needing, to train staff on Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) data?
(Examples include educating staff on the importance of the social determinants, how it aligns with Patient-Centered Medical Home efforts, how to collect those determinants using the specific EHR system, and how to connect patients to available resources to meet the needs identified.)
Currently, WRHS has just started to screen patients on SDOH. 2/18/19 was the first day we started screening all patients both adult and pediatric. Once we start to obtain more data I think the next step is to look at the most prevalent needs are for our patients and discuss what options we have to increase these services; either on site or with a community partner. I think that once we have more data it can also be used to compare it to their medical diagnosis/condition to determine what SDOH factors that impact their health and if there are trends that can help our staff find better ways to
improve the patients health outcomes. I think that the SDOH data is no surprise to our community resource and case management department, as this the area of service that they work in each day. I am hopeful that this data will enhance the conversations we have with other providers, staff, partners, and state officials regarding the magnitude of need our patients have.
In discussions I have had with both staff and community partners a lot of people think that these SDOH needs are limited to the Medicaid or even Medicare population and that the commercially insured patients likely do not have these needs due to their income. In speaking with other health centers who are doing this work in Rhode Island staff has been surprised at the level of need for the commercial patients as well.
Training has begun on how to input the data into the template and who to refer to based on those answers. Moving forward, I think there will need to be training on how looking at this data can enhance patient care, what other referrals could be made, and how staff can collaborate throughout the facility to provide the most appropriate services to all our patients.
1) What is your organization currently doing, planning to do, or needing, to train staff on Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) data?
(Examples include educating staff on the importance of the social determinants, how it aligns with Patient-Centered Medical Home efforts, how to collect those determinants using the specific EHR system, and how to connect patients to available resources to meet the needs identified.)
Currently, WRHS has just started to screen patients on SDOH. 2/18/19 was the first day we started screening all patients both adult and pediatric. Once we start to obtain more data I think the next step is to look at the most prevalent needs are for our patients and discuss what options we have to increase these services; either on site or with a community partner. I think that once we have more data it can also be used to compare it to their medical diagnosis/condition to determine what SDOH factors that impact their health and if there are trends that can help our staff find better ways to
improve the patients health outcomes. I think that the SDOH data is no surprise to our community resource and case management department, as this the area of service that they work in each day. I am hopeful that this data will enhance the conversations we have with other providers, staff, partners, and state officials regarding the magnitude of need our patients have.
In discussions I have had with both staff and community partners a lot of people think that these SDOH needs are limited to the Medicaid or even Medicare population and that the commercially insured patients likely do not have these needs due to their income. In speaking with other health centers who are doing this work in Rhode Island staff has been surprised at the level of need for the commercial patients as well.
Training has begun on how to input the data into the template and who to refer to based on those answers. Moving forward, I think there will need to be training on how looking at this data can enhance patient care, what other referrals could be made, and how staff can collaborate throughout the facility to provide the most appropriate services to all our patients.