Addressing social determinants of health through customization: Quality improvement, telemedicine, and care coordination to serve immigrant families.
Heidi Castillo, Mary M Locastro, Ellen Fremion and 6 others
PMID 38160372WHAT IT FOUND
Electronic record prompts let staff in a spina bifida clinic serving 758 people document food, transport, housing, money and immigration needs, then review them before clinic and refer families to local help.
The report gives no analysis of whether the workflow changed outcomes.
Key findings
01The spina bifida clinic served 758 people, and the documented social needs included food insecurity, transportation, housing stability, financial strain, caregiver education and work.
02The social worker followed up after clinic on documented needs.
03The report says no statistical analysis of correlations was presented and no formal provider survey was collected.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
This is a single clinic quality improvement report, not a trial, so it cannot show that the workflow caused any improvement. The workflow relied on social work and nursing staff already available in the spina bifida program, so clinics without those staff may not be able to copy it. The project was done after the pandemic, when telemedicine was already set up, so sites without telemedicine may struggle to use it. No formal provider survey was collected, although informal feedback was obtained. No statistical analysis of correlations was presented because the report was meant as a qualitative description of the project.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that the electronic record workflow improved outcomes. The report gives no analysis of whether the workflow changed outcomes, and no formal provider survey was collected.