SCREENING FOR SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

The NYU Langone Brooklyn Emergency Department (ED) seeks to mitigate the social determinants of health for at-risk populations by connecting patients with appropriate social resources at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). The client enlisted a Capstone team to help 1) develop a social determinant of health screener for physicians to administer during patient visits, and 2) evaluate the efficacy of a pilot screening of over 50 patients in the ED. Patients participating in the pilot who screen positive are connected to a variety of interventions via a referral system to the FQHC. The team observed the range of referrals—from food pantry bag distribution to health information pamphlet dissemination, from social work interventions to financial counseling consults—and collected data from follow-up tracking conducted by the ED and FQHC on patients who received referrals. In its final report, the team analyzes and visualizes relevant data and makes recommendations for full implementation of the triage screening and referral system.