A new report examines the extent to which community health centers are engaged in assessing patients for social determinants of health to help improve health outcomes. The Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative is based at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
The new Data Note by the Collaborative analyzes 2020 data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Uniform Data System, an annual nationwide reporting system that offers in-depth information about community health centers. The GW researchers explored community health center engagement in screening patients for social risk. Social determinants of health like poverty, poor nutrition, unsafe housing and other factors play a big role in poor health outcomes; identifying and addressing them are important to preventing illness and keeping people healthy. They found that three out of four or 75% of health centers in 2020 were collecting such data on their patients.