PCR078: Use of the EHR to Address the Social Determinants of Health - Primary Care Learning Experiences in a Health System

Erin Westfall, DO; Marjan Jahani Kondori; Rosean Bishop, PhD; Rodney Erickson, MD; Thomas Thacher, MD

Abstract

Context: Identifying patients with needs related to Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) and connecting them with appropriate resources in an effective, efficient, and timely way can prove challenging. Primary care clinicians (PCC’s) interact with the EHR thousands of times daily; this engagement can be leveraged to better address the SDOH. Objective: To understand our health system PCC’s use of the EHR to identify adult patients who are experiencing adverse SDOH. Study Design: Descriptive study conducted by a learning collaborative (LC). Setting: A large health system including urban and rural regions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Florida, and Arizona. Population studied: Community-based physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants practicing in family medicine, general internal medicine, or pediatrics. Instrument: A brief intranet survey was sent to members of the system’s primary care learning collaborative. The survey included multiple-choice questions, with additional space provided for optional narrative responses. Outcome Measures: Assess PCC’s practice patterns for addressing the SDOH through utilization of the EHR tools. Results: 87 responses were received out of 192 surveys issued (45%). Most PCC’s see patients who are negatively impacted by SDOH either daily (85%) or weekly (92%). Fifty-six percent review the patient specific SDOH information in the EHR at the time of the clinical encounter, while 29% do not review the information at all. Of those who review the SDOH in the EHR, 63% refer the patient to someone else to manage the identified needs; 78% use social workers, 44% use nursing staff, and 24% use case managers. Only 11% rated the EHR as very useful in identifying SDOH, 55% find it somewhat useful and 32% do not find it helpful at all. Most (78%) were unaware of how to use the EHR to refer a patient to a community-based organization. Forty-four percent of PCC’s were interested in learning, in written or webinar form, more about using the EHR to screen and intervene on the SDOH. Conclusion: PCC’s frequently see patients with needs related to the SDOH. While the EHR is a tool to screen patients for barriers to optimal health, it is not currently being well utilized by PCCs to intervene on these barriers. PCCs tend to engage ancillary team members to address the complex care needs of their patients. There is interest in learning ways to use the EHR to identify and intervene when adverse SDOH are identified.
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Dennis Baumgardner, MD
11/19/2021

Thanks for your work on this interesting topic.

Jack Westfall
jwestfall@aafp.org 11/20/2021

Thanks for your terrific work on this research. The Robert Graham Center is very interested in this topic and looking for collaborators. Hope we can connect.

Henry Olaisen
holaisen@aafp.org 11/21/2021

Thank you for your important contribution to identifying this technology and use gap. As Jack mentioned, we at the Robert Graham Center are planning work in this space in 2022 - look forward to future conversations.

Erin Westfall
westfall.erin@mayo.edu 11/22/2021

Thank you! I would love to collaborate. I will reach out to your team.

Diane Harper
harperdi@med.umich.edu 11/21/2021

What are your next steps? Are you connected to your IT team to allow the development of SDOH terms?

Erin Westfall
westfall.erin@mayo.edu 11/22/2021

Thank you, Diane, for your question! Yes, we have created a team (s) to better address the SDOH. This includes IT, primary care and population health. We're specifically working to shorten our SDOH questionnaire to ensure that more people complete the questionnaire, building teams and workflow processes around screening and intervening on adverse SDOH, and also optimizing the Aunt Bertha/Find Help plugin to our EMR. This includes piloting a position that both assists teams in finding resources for our individual patients (at POC and/or asynchronously through phone, face to face or home visits) as well as working directly with community based organizations and public health to build capacity within those organizations to utilize the Find Help platform to facilitate bidirectional communication. We're hoping to influence EPIC to interface better with Find Help/AB so the closed loop communication can come right to the in basket of the care teams rather than via email. Finally, we've held educational conferences for staff and physicians on the basics of "how to" review and refer using the EPIC tools. Definitely a lot of work to do!

Gillian Bartlett
gillian.bartlett@health.missouri.edu 11/23/2021

This is certainly critical information we need in primary care - not only for clinicians but also for researchers. I look forward to seeing more of your work in this area.

David White
david.white@utoronto.ca 11/23/2021

This is an important topic and well-done research study. Nice work. Thanks I contributed to Canadian research that used postal codes to identify patient to screen for poverty. A reminder popped up in the EMR to do so. A key aspect was that there were resource people (primarily SW) within the practice team to who referral could be made if the patient wished.

Andy Pasternak
avpiv711@sbcglobal.net 11/26/2021

I'd agree that EHRs are lousy at capturing this but I don't know if that's really their role. I sort of feel that's my responsibility as the primary care physician.

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