Commentary: Embracing the problem of subsistence needs in the emergency department

The US health care system is indeed ill. Its disease, unfortunately, is more like widespread, systemic sepsis than isolated single-organ pathology. As such, it is both diagnostically and therapeutically complex, with multiple underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms that require a broad, multifaceted approach to have any reasonable chance at cure. Hsieh identifies one of the root causes of our health care system’s infirmity, which is our failure to address the social determinants of health. He presents an informed and cogent assessment of this failure, as well as a rational and practical approach to deal with this problem.

This article is part of a special supplement: Inventing Social Emergency Medicine: A Consensus Conference to Establish the Intellectual Underpinnings of Social Emergency Medicine.