Beyond 'Screen & Refer': Understanding Families' Use of Resources for Health-related Social Needs Identified via Primary Care.

OBJECTIVE: As health-related social needs (HRSN) screening increases, attention to families' resource preferences lags. This study of a pediatric primary care intervention (DULCE) with reliable HRSN screening and resource connection explored whether resources adequately addressed families' needs and, when HRSN persisted, families' reasons for declining resources. METHODS: This retrospective cohort, mixed-methods study analyzed data from 989 families that received care at seven pediatric clinics implementing DULCE in three states. DULCE screens for seven HRSN around the 1-month and 4-month well-child visits; we calculated the percent of initial and ongoing positive screens. For positive rescreens, we calculated the percent that had all eligible or wanted resources and that were interested in further resources. We also analyzed case notes, which elicited families' resource preferences, and explored demographic characteristics associated with ongoing HRSN. RESULTS: Half of enrolled families (508 of 989) initially screened positive for HRSN; 124 families had positive rescreens; 26 expressed interest in further assistance. Most families with ongoing concrete supports needs accessed all eligible resources (60-100%); 20-58% had everything they wanted. Fewer families with ongoing maternal depression and intimate partner violence accessed all eligible resources (48% and 18%, respectively); most reported having all wanted resources (76% and 90%, respectively). Families declined resources due to lack of perceived need, the HRSN resolving, or families addressed HRSN themselves. White families were more likely to rescreen positive. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric medical homes must honor family-centered decision-making while empowering families to accept beneficial resources. Healthcare systems should advocate for resources that families need and want.

Primary Care-Based Housing Program Reduced Outpatient Visits; Patients Reported Mental And Physical Health Benefits.

Screening for housing instability has increased as health systems move toward value-based care, but evidence on how health care-based housing interventions affect patient outcomes comes mostly from interventions that address homelessness. In this mixed-methods evaluation of a primary care-based housing program in Boston, Massachusetts, for 1,139 patients with housing-related needs that extend beyond homelessness, we found associations between program participation and health care use. Patients enrolled in the program between October 2018 and March 2021 had 2.5 fewer primary care visits and 3.6 fewer outpatient visits per year compared with those who were not enrolled, including fewer social work, behavioral health, psychiatry, and urgent care visits. Patients in the program who obtained new housing reported mental and physical health benefits, and some expressed having stronger connections to their health care providers. Many patients attributed improvements in mental health to compassionate support provided by the program's housing advocates. Health care-based housing interventions should address the needs of patients facing imminent housing crises. Such interventions hold promise for redressing health inequities and restoring dignity to the connections between historically marginalized patient populations and health care institutions.

Sustaining and scaling a clinic-based approach to address health-related social needs.

Objective: Scaling evidence-based interventions (EBIs) from pilot phase remains a pressing challenge in efforts to address health-related social needs (HRSN) and improve population health. This study describes an innovative approach to sustaining and further spreading DULCE (Developmental Understanding and Legal Collaboration for Everyone), a universal EBI that supports pediatric clinics to implement the American Academy of Pediatrics' Bright Futures™ guidelines for infants' well-child visits (WCVs) and introduces a new quality measure of families' HRSN resource use. Methods: Between August 2018 and December 2019, seven teams in four communities in three states implemented DULCE: four teams that had been implementing DULCE since 2016 and three new teams. Teams received monthly data reports and individualized continuous quality improvement (CQI) coaching for six months, followed by lighter-touch support via quarterly group calls (peer-to-peer learning and coaching). Run charts were used to study outcome (percent of infants that received all WCVs on time) and process measures (percent of families screened for HRSN and connected to resources). Results: Integrating three new sites was associated with an initial regression of outcome: 41% of infants received all WCVs on time, followed by improvement to 48%. Process performance was sustained or improved: among 989 participating families, 84% (831) received 1-month WCVs on time; 96% (946) were screened for seven HRSN, 54% (508) had HRSN, and 87% (444) used HRSN resources. Conclusion: An innovative, lighter-touch CQI approach to a second phase of scale-up resulted in sustainment or improvements in most processes and outcomes. Outcomes-oriented CQI measures (family receipt of resources) are an important addition to more traditional process-oriented indicators.

Benefits of a Universal Intervention in Pediatric Medical Homes to Identify and Address Health-Related Social Needs: An Observational Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE: Compare rates of identification of families with health-related social needs (HRSN) and connection to resources by targeted versus universal, pediatric clinic-based interventions. METHODS: This observational cohort study included 1677 families that received care (January 2017-May 2020) at 8 pediatric medical homes in 3 states implementing Developmental Understanding and Legal Collaboration for Everyone (DULCE)-a universal, evidence-based intervention that addresses HRSN for families with infants. We divided the cohort into 2 groups using 4 common risk criteria in targeted programs serving families with infants; 862 families had no high-risk characteristics (Risk Criteria Absent [RCA]); 815 families had high-risk characteristics (Risk Criteria Present [RCP]). We compared both groups by prevalence of HRSN and connection to supports and estimated the performance of high-risk criteria to identify HRSN. RESULTS: DULCE identified 990 families with HRSN, compared to an estimated 274 families, if a risk-targeted approach had been used. More than half of RCA families had HRSN, 11% used resources at enrollment, and 42.5% accessed resources through DULCE. Simultaneously, 68.8% of RCP families had ongoing HRSN although 46.0% used resources at enrollment; 63.9% accessed additional resources through DULCE. Commonly used risk criteria had a sensitivity of 55.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 52.2%-58.5%), specificity of 61.1% (95% CI, 57.2%-64.9%), positive predictive value of 68.8% (95% CI, 65.4%-72.0%), and negative predictive value of 46.9% (95% CI, 43.5%-50.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Risk criteria commonly used to identify families for targeted interventions are imperfect proxies for HRSN. Universal, medical home-based approaches can play a key role in supporting families with infants.