The conditions in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship and age strongly influence health outcomes and quality of life. Research has shown that social risk factors impact health care quality, cost, use and patient outcomes. Organizations are increasingly using community resource referral platforms in their work to address social determinants of health (SDOH) for their populations. These are commonly designed with two primary purposes:
1. Provide an up-to-date resource directory that can be filtered to target different geographic regions, services offered and eligibility criteria, and
2. Track referrals and “close the loop” to know the referral outcome: Did the patient use the service and what was the result?
There are many community resource referral platforms on the market and the journey to implementation is not straightforward. This catalog of implementation challenges and recommendations is designed to be a guide for organizations following a similar path. Organizations should consider the lessons learned and recommendations herein when planning to implement a community resource referral platform. Issues fell into 10 categories: HIPAA; Part 2; patient consent; trust/relationships; consistent engagement; data availability; vision/goal alignment; system integration; workflow alignment; and education.
Christensen K, Soucie J, Hudson Scholle S. Implementing a community referral platform: Recommendations from a real-world implementation experience; qualitative findings. 2020. National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Available online.
