Health-related social needs, such as lack of access to food and transportation, are associated with higher utilization of emergency departments, according to research published Dec. 15 in JAMA.
Researchers from Minneapolis-based Allina Health, a 12-hospital system, analyzed more than 160,000 patient visits among Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries between 2018 and 2022. The study focused on inpatient admissions and ED visits six months before and after each screening for health-related social needs.
Five health-related social needs were associated with higher-than-usual ED visits: housing instability, food insecurity, unreliable transportation, unstable access to utilities and lack of interpersonal safety. The study found a sixth need, problems with housing quality, was linked to lower odds of ED use.
Two social needs, housing instability and unreliable transportation, were associated with higher than the average inpatient admissions.
As the U.S. healthcare industry gradually adopts value-based reimbursement models, health systems are working to better identify and address health-related social needs, according to the study. Nearly 1 in 4 Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries screened for health-related social needs at Allina Health had at least one social need.
The researchers said health-related social needs differ from social determinants of health. The former includes basic needs experienced at the individual level, while SDOH are structural factors used to explain health inequalities among populations.
“By better understanding how HRSNs are associated with health care utilization, health systems can focus their resources on targets that are most meaningful for their patient populations,” the researchers concluded.
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