Salud America! Action Pack guides providers for equitable care
To truly improve patient and community health, UT Health San Antonio is addressing non-medical needs that arise due to social determinants of health (SDoH), such as inequitable access to housing, transportation and food that make it harder for people to stay healthy.
And it is doing so through SDoH screening.
SDoH screening is a questionnaire given to patients in a health care setting to help providers identify social needs. These include issues like financial hardship, housing and food.
Patients can then be referred to helpful community resources.
Providers can use the new Salud America! Action Pack, “How to Advocate for SDoH Screening in Healthcare,” to launch SDoH screening in their clinic, hospital or health care system.
The action pack, created by Amelie G. Ramirez, DrPH, MPH, at UT Health San Antonio, has a conversation-starting model email, fact sheet, checklist on how to develop SDoH screening and a guide that reviews existing screening tools.
“SDoH screening aims to help clinicians better understand patients, connect patients to community support and spotlight the root causes of health inequities,” said Ramirez, director of the Salud America! Latino health communication program at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio.
Why is SDoH screening needed?
Where patients live can have a big impact on their health.
Non-medical factors like where people are born, live, work and age — known as social determinants of health (SDoH) — can influence health for better or worse.
Yet the U.S. has struggled to identify and help people with SDoH issues.
In the health care setting, SDoH screening can help systems, hospitals and clinics to identify and address health-related social needs at the individual level. It also has seven other big benefits.
See how SDoH screening works for Nemours, FQHCs and Dallas Children’s.
How does this Action Pack help providers advocate for SDoH screening?
The new Action Pack can help health care teams work to start or refine SDoH screening in their settings.
Led by Ramirez, the Action Pack is a collaboration from the Salud America! program and the Avanzando Equidad de Salud: Latino Cancer Health Equity Research Center at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio.
The action pack has these three steps for providers:
- Start a conversation for SDoH screening in your health care setting. Use a model email and guide to engage champions and stakeholders in your health care setting — from clinics to hospitals to health care systems — to start the conversation for SDoH screening.
- Go through a checklist to develop an SDoH screening program. Use a checklist to help you think through all the considerations you and your team will need to explore as you develop an SDoH screening program. You can also learn from others who have implemented screening.
- Guide to select/adapt your SDoH screening tool. Use a guide to select or adapt your SDoH screening tool based on a review of existing SDoH screening tools.
Providers also can get technical assistance from a Salud America! action pack coach, who can help customize materials and answer questions.
“SDoH screening can help clinicians and non-clinicians identify patients’ immediate social needs,” Ramirez said. “This gives them insight into the lived experiences of their patients, which is crucial for them to connect patients to relevant community resources.”
Find the full Action Pack at https://bit.ly/sdohpack.