There is much discussion these days about the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). Social determinants are critical for patient-centered care. As health systems, payers and Medicare/Medicaid systems are striving to reduce costs and improve outcomes, one cannot ignore the SDOH and their impact on every aspect of healthcare.
What are social determinants? The list is endless, but it generally falls into the categories of education, housing/neighborhood environment, economic stability, food, and access to healthcare. Almost every aspect of a person’s life impacts this. For example, lack of transportation can affect their ability to get to quality, affordable healthcare. Long work hours can contribute to an unhealthy lifestyle and the inability to take care of basic health needs.
Documenting and tracking healthcare has not been a standard part of medical care and have not been systematically included in clinical procedures and data collection. However, medical providers need access to the information and an understanding of their impact on the patient’s overall health profile. For example, a patients ability to fill a prescription impacts medication adherence. The biggest impacts on this are time, transportation and costs. Without capturing SDOH information, the caregiver would not necessarily take this into consideration when preparing the patient’s care plan.
The need for SDOH Tools as part of the workflows
We need to develop tools that capture social determinant information and integrate it into the care model. This can be integrated into the EHR platform or as a companion application that tracks social determinants and integrates that into the care continuum.
ISeeYouCare recognizes that social determinants are critical for patient-centered care. In supporting this goal, we are incorporating this capability into our care platform. This will allow caregivers to integrate these important measures into the overall care planning process.
For more information on how we accomplish this, contact us today.