August Research Round-Up

August Research Round-Up

See below for a selection of publications recently added to the SIREN Evidence & Resource Library. As always, if you are aware of resources you think should be added to the Library please send them our way.

Articles connecting COVID and social needs interventions

Community Resilience for COVID-19 and Beyond: Leveraging a System for Health Care and Social Services Integration
A.L. Brewster, M. Fleming, M. Knox, & A. Roth
Health Affairs Blog
This blog post describes how one county’s COVID-19 response leveraged cross-sector partnerships, a data-sharing platform, and multidisciplinary case management capacity from an existing health and social services care management program to help vulnerable individuals shelter in place.

The COVID-19 Shadow Pandemic: Meeting Social Needs for a City In Lockdown
J. Clapp, A. Calvo-Friedman, S. Cameron, et al.
Health Affairs
The authors describe how New York City Health + Hospitals moved quickly at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to develop and execute a strategy to meet patients’ intensified social needs.

3.5 Million Social Needs Requests During COVID-19: What Can We Learn from 2-1-1?
M.W. Kreuter, R. Garg, I. Javad, et al.
Health Affairs Blog
Analysis of more than 3.5 million requests to 2-1-1s during COVID-19 show that the impact of the pandemic was immediate and dramatic; needs are changing over time and vary by population and place; and policies influence needs.

Maximizing Food Security for Unauthorized Immigrants During COVID-19
D. Velasquez, J. Kondo, S. Downer, & E.B. Lieb
Health Affairs Blog
The authors make policy recommendations to help meet the basic food security needs of all people currently in this country, including unauthorized immigrants. One recommendation is increase funding for community health centers to provide social services like food support.

Reducing Social Isolation of Seniors During COVID-19 Through Medical Student Telephone Contact
E.E. Office, M.S. Rodenstein, T.S. Merchant, T.R. Pendergrast, & L.A. Lindquist
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
The authors describe a phone call outreach program in which health care professional student volunteers phoned older adults at risk of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Articles about social needs interventions

Voting, Health and Interventions in Healthcare Settings: A Scoping Review
C.L Brown, D. Raza, & A.D. Pinto
Public Health Reviews
The authors of this scoping review found documented associations between voting, health, and electoral outcomes; and a few studies on interventions in healthcare organizations that can increase voter participation.

Screening for Unmet Social Needs: Patient Engagement or Alienation?
E. Butler, A. Morgan, & S. Kangovi
NEJM Catalyst
This article offers advice to help health care leaders make their social needs programs more patient centered and effective, including strategies to minimize harm.

Exploring the Gap: Food Insecurity and Resource Engagement
D. Cullen, D. Abel, M. Attridge, & J.A. Fein
Academic Pediatrics
Among adult caregivers of pediatric patients in the ED at an urban hospital who screened positive for food insecurity, there was substantial drop-off between interest in a referral at time of screening and ultimate connection with the resource agency due to inability to re-contact and loss of interest by the time of re-contact.

Impact of a Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program on Health Outcomes and Behaviors in Young Navajo Children
L.J. Jones, J. VanWassenhove-Paetzold, K. Thomas, et al.
Current Developments in Nutrition
This pre-post evaluation of a pediatric fruit and vegetable prescription program found improvements in children's fruit and vegetable consumption and decreases in household food insecurity.

Leveraging the Electronic Health Record to Link Health Center Patients with Medical-Legal Partnership Services
M. Curran
National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
This issue brief provides concrete examples of how health centers in Iowa, Montana, and Texas are leveraging EHRs to complement their screening for the social determinants of health as well as to increase their capacity to deliver targeted MLP-related interventions.

An Exploration of Community Partnerships, Safety-Net Hospitals, and Readmission Rates
O. Cheon, J. Baek, B.A. Kash, & S.L. Jones
Health Services Research
Using hospital-level datasets, this study found that safety-net hospitals were more engaged in hospital‐community partnerships than other types of hospitals; however, such partnerships were not significantly related to reductions in readmission rates.

The Impact of Social and Clinical Complexity on Diabetes Control Measures
E.K. Cottrell, J.P. O'Malley, K. Dambrun, et al.
Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
This study found that social complexity, measured at the community level using the Social Deprivation Index, was associated with worse diabetic control in two large community health center networks, suggesting that providers caring for patients with greater social risks may benefit from having their performance metrics adjusted for patient social complexity.

Exploring the Capacity of Community-Based Organisations to Absorb Health System Patient Referrals for Unmet Social Needs
R. Hogg-Graham, K. Edwards, T.L. Ely, M. Mochizuki, & D. Varda
Health and Social Care in the Community
This study in two communities found that misalignment between clinical and CBO understanding of demand, needs, and capacity present a potential risk in building strategies that integrate health and social services to address unmet social need.

A Volunteer Program in Maine to Transport Community Members to Health Care Appointments
S.L. Martin, J. Wood, & S. Soule
Preventing Chronic Disease
This case study describes the development and implementation of a rural network of volunteer drivers that transport people to medical and social service appointments. Drivers are reimbursed for mileage using Medicare and Medicaid dollars.

Permanent Supportive Housing with Housing First to Reduce Homelessness and Promote Health Among Homeless Populations with Disability: A Community Guide Systematic Review
Y. Peng, R.A. Hahn, R.K.C. Finnie, et al.
Journal of Public Health Management & Practice
This systematic review found that Housing First programs improved housing stability and reduced homelessness among peple with disabilities more effectively than Treatment First programs.

Maryland’s Innovative Primary Care Program: Building a Foundation for Health and Well-Being
C. Perman, R. Patterson, & H. Haft
Milbank Memorial Fund
This brief describes the evolution and core components of the Maryland Primary Care Program, a statewide advanced primary care model that includes social needs screening as part of a comprehensive set of services.

Comparison of SDOH-Related Investments by Texas and California Medicaid Health Plans
S. Sim, J. Cantor, N. Giron, et al.
Health Affairs Blog
Surveys with Medicaid health plans in CA and TX found that in both states federal policies served as catalyst for plans’ investments in SDOH and that plans in both states share similar concerns about sustainability.

Evaluation of a Patient-Collected Audio Audit and Feedback Quality Improvement Program on Clinician Attention to Patient Life Context and Health Care Costs in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System
S. Weiner, A. Schwartz, L. Altman, et al.
JAMA Network Open
A quality improvement study increased clinicians’ attention to patients’ contextual factors (including social risks), leading to improved outcomes. Estimated cost savings from avoided hospitalizations totaled $25.2 million.

Analysis of the Effects of a Patient-Centered Rideshare Program on Missed Appointments and Timeliness for MRI Appointments at an Academic Medical Center
D.S. Whorms, A.K. Narayan, A. Pourvaziri, et al.
Journal of the American College of Radiology
In this retrospective study, a rideshare program improved patient timeliness to MRI appointments, but not missed appointment rates. Patients who were older, unemployed, and without commercial insurance were most likely to use the service.

"Hay que seguir en la lucha": An FQHC's Community Health Action Approach to Promoting Latinx Immigrants' Individual and Community Resilience
T.N.J. Yamanis, T. Morrissey, L. Bochey, N. Cañas, & C. Sol
Behavioral Medicine
Patients interviewed in this study of an FQHC's community health action approach expressed sources of both individual resilience (e.g. using the clinic as a safety net) and community resilience (e.g. the FQHC's referrals to outside legal service providers and health promoter training).