Addressing Social Determinant of Health Factors Through Technology: Community Resource Guide, a Community Gateway application
Addressing Social Determinant of Health Factors Through Technology: Community Resource Guide
Along with the development of a social determinant of health (SDH) screening tool, the Mount Sinai PPS is exploring ways to use technology to help connect providers and their patients to community-based resources. Over the decades, significant research and empirical evidence have supported the direct correlation of social and behavioral factors on health outcomes. A recent study from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute demonstrated that nearly 40% of socioeconomic factors impact population health outcomes, including education, employment, income, family/social support, and community safety.*
Mount Sinai PPS is connecting partners to the Community Resource Guide, an online solution that identifies local community resources that are relevant to your patient’s unmet social needs. The goal of the Community Resource Guide is to help address social and environmental issues impacting a patient’s health beyond the clinical setting. These upstream determinants of health can include housing, food access, personal safety, and legal issues, among others. This application is accessible through the PPS Community Gateway, a web-based portal that has a myriad of applications designed specifically to support clinical transformation.
Why Community Resource Guide?
The Community Resource Guide stands out from other resource directories due to its ability to generate robust “electronic prescriptions” of community-based resources that are tailor-made for each patient. The tool is highly customizable, allowing providers to identify resources that are targeted to address the needs of a specific patient. A care team member can select one or more social service or clinical condition categories, and then apply filters based on geography, language, hours of operation, special population considerations, and more. The result is a highly curated and validated list of recommended resources. This information can be printed or sent via text or email to the patient.
MSPPS is currently engaging a small group of partners in this effort and will plan to expand its reach across the network. For more information on Community Gateway applications, please see here.
* http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/county-health-rankings-model
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