Missed screening for adverse social determinants of health and emergency department utilization

Although adverse social determinants of health are associated with poorer health outcomes and are highly prevalent in emergency department (ED) patients, many screening efforts have only been in primary care settings. Primary care–based screening may exacerbate disparities as patients with barriers to accessing primary care never receive resources. We therefore sought to describe the demographic characteristics and ED utilization of Medicaid patients who were missed by a primary care screening program.