Background: Healthcare disparities have existed for decades, yet it took a global pandemic to put this emergency into the spotlight. The Joint Commission states “health related social needs” (HRSN) are the root cause of many disparities. HRSN encompasses a wide spectrum including inability to pay bills, poor access to transportation, and lack of housing. At [...]

Background: Healthcare disparities have existed for decades, yet it took a global pandemic to put this emergency into the spotlight. The Joint Commission states “health related social needs” (HRSN) are the root cause of many disparities. HRSN encompasses a wide spectrum including inability to pay bills, poor access to transportation, and lack of housing. At [...]

Background: In the acute care environment, healthcare workers interface with patients who have limited access to medical care and a high prevalence of social determinants of health (SDoH) barriers.1 The inpatient setting presents a key intervention point where the social needs of vulnerable populations might be addressed. Standard inpatient medicine care teams, however, lack the [...]

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious and prevalent public health issue associated with increased healthcare utilization and worse healthcare outcomes. The majority of IPV outcomes research is conducted in emergency and outpatient populations. Our study aims to investigate how IPV exposure affects hospitalization rates and outcomes in adult patients. Methods: We performed a [...]

Background: Nearly 6 million pediatric patients are discharged from the hospital yearly in the United States (AHRQ 2012), and social determinants of health (SDoH) impact discharge outcomes (Nacht 2022). Effective discharge planning prevents patient readmissions (Shapiro 2021), but the literature on how best to educate pediatric trainees is limited (Key-Solle 2010, Widmer 2015). We assessed [...]

Background: Lack of stable housing adversely affects health outcomes, increases healthcare utilization, and increases mortality. Few studies have assessed the prevalence of homelessness and housing insecurity in hospitalized patients. To address this gap, we conducted a hospital point-in-time study to determine the prevalence of housing insecurity and homelessness among hospitalized patients at two academic medical [...]

Background: Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a growing health crisis in the United States (US). Buprenorphine treatment for OUD has been found to improve outcomes and reduce mortality, although disparities in access to treatment and outcomes for OUD exist. Previous studies have shown that those retained in treatment for longer durations are more likely to [...]

Background: Management of heart failure (HF) patients revolves around optimization of guideline directed medical therapy (GDMT) and routine monitoring. Substance use plays a major role as the etiology of HF, especially in a low socioeconomic area with ethnic and racial minority patients. The aim of this study is to find the correlation of alcohol, tobacco [...]

Background: An estimated 580,000 individuals were experiencing homelessness during the most recent national point-in-time count. Dialysis requires substantial patient engagement, and not having secure housing impedes medical care and could increase acute care utilization. The prevalence of homelessness and its impact on hospitalizations among patients with ESKD are unknown. This retrospective cohort study examined differences [...]

Background: The key goals of HF therapy are to prevent progression of symptoms, improve quality of life, and prolong survival. Studies have attempted to study and improve post hospitalization outcomes among patients with HF. Social determinants of Health include a wide set of factors from daily life which are responsible for health inequity. Burden of [...]