Chicago-based Cook County Health and Hospitals System, the National Committee for Quality Assurance and the Medical Home Network partnered to study one method of connecting patients' medical care with their social service needs.
For the study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the research collaborators will connect as many as 25 hospitals and 200 patient-centered medical homes with a variety of community-based organizations in Illinois' Cook County using MHNConnect, a web-based care management platform developed by the Medical Home Network.
The goal of the study is to investigate how referring underserved patients to organizations focused on food insecurity, homelessness and unemployment may influence their overall health outcomes. The researchers will also track how the care management platform affects the patients' use of hospital and emergency department services.
"Economic opportunities, housing, legal resources and access to food — these social determinants all play a significant role in a person's ability to get and stay healthy," John Jay Shannon, MD, CEO of Cook County Health and Hospitals System, said in a May 10 statement. "This project will help us understand where providers like Cook County Health can work more effectively with social service groups to improve our patients' health status."