Hospital decision-making and adoption of health-related social needs programs in us hospitals

Aim: Our study examines the association between hospital management involvement in health equity goals and the hospital’s adoption of social needs initiatives.

Results: Of 4288 acute-care hospitals, 2271 (53.0%) responded to HRSN program and health equity goals items, with 93.9% offering any of the 5 HRSN programs and 1475 (69.2%) reporting both senior and other management involvement (Table 1). The most commonly offered HRSN programs were health behaviors (86.1%), transportation (83.8%), food insecurity (82.7%), and interpersonal violence (69.6%). The least offered program was employment (52.1%)

Conclusion: Interestingly, hospitals where only senior management was involved were more likely to offer specific programs like food insecurity and transportation services, although these associations were generally smaller compared with when both senior and other management were engaged. This suggests that while senior leadership plays a pivotal role, the inclusion of other managers and other organizational layers may be important to implement and sustain comprehensive social services.