Lessons Learned: Implementing and Expanding Social Needs Screening Programs in Health Centers - Session 3: Level 3: Responding to the Social Needs Screening

HITEQ Learning Collaborative Series

Is your health center currently in the process of considering, implementing, or revamping a social needs screening program within your EHR or health IT system? Join this learning collaborative to learn about health center promising practices and key considerations to support the successful collection, monitoring, and addressing of social needs data. During the series, participants will explore the levels of maturity in the social needs screening implementation process.

The levels of maturity include: 

• Level 1: Coming to Consensus
• Level 2: Implementing a Social Needs Screening Tool
• Level 3: Responding to Positive Screens
• Level 4: Monitoring and Using Data

Participants will gain information on concrete strategies and IT solutions that will help to improve internal systems, such as EHR utilization and care team workflows, and increase their capacity to advance individual and population-level health.  The HITEQ Center has partnered with the Louisiana Primary Care Association to design this series. Louisiana-based health centers will be showcased throughout the series to share their experiences with social needs screening, including successes, challenges, and lessons learned.

Session 3: Level 3 - Responding to the Social Needs Screening
During this session, participants will learn about concrete digital solutions health centers can leverage to document, communicate, respond to, and track positive screens.

Topics: Documenting positive screens (via order sets, Z codes, problem lists, favorites group), Sensitivity with Z codes, Communicating positive screens (internal referrals, telephone encounters, global alerts, castover), Responding to positive screens (internal and external referrals, role of behavioral health or case management department, challenges with community-based referral platforms, tracking referrals), Prioritizing which positive needs to address.