A hospital-based program to screen for and address health-related social needs for patients admitted with COVID-19

Unmet health-related social needs (HRSNs) drive increased healthcare utilization and exacerbate health disparities. The COVID-19 pandemic led to severe secondary social impacts in vulnerable communities, including economic uncertainty and exacerbation of unmet social needs such as housing and food insecurity, transportation difficulties, exposure to violence and threats to personal safety. These social impacts are often magnified in patients hospitalized for COVID-19, given how the infection affects patients’ health as well as their communities and family support systems. Yet few coordinated approaches to supporting vulnerable, hospitalized patients during major public health events have been documented or evaluated in the literature.