Abstract
Objectives
Social determinants of health are major drivers of health outcomes and quality of
life. While several social needs screening tools have been created for use in primary
care settings, the best procedures to incorporate these tools into hospital workflow
remain unclear. This study aimed to elicit clinical stakeholder perspectives on proposed
screening for social needs during pediatric hospitalizations, with particular focus
on informing implementation strategies.
Methods
We conducted 23 semistructured interviews with pediatric clinical stakeholders (physicians,
nurses, social workers, and case managers) at 1 tertiary and 2 community hospitals
between July 2020 and January 2021, on topics including social needs screening practices,
benefits and challenges to inpatient screening, and optimal screening and referral
processes within hospital workflow. Interviews were recorded, professionally transcribed,
and analyzed thematically.
Results
Participants ranged in age from 25 to 62 years, with nearly half working in community
hospitals. Regarding inpatient social needs screening, themes emerged about benefits,
including enabling clinicians to identify vulnerable patients/moments, and providing
clinicians with comprehensive understanding of social context; barriers, including
prioritization of medical needs, lack of clinician education surrounding screening,
and lack of pre-established relationships; facilitators, including duration of time
spent with families, and multidisciplinary clinicians; screening process preferences,
including verbal screening, and integration into pre-existing systems; and referral
process preferences, including resource provision with family empowerment, and care
transition to outpatient clinicians.
Conclusions
Clinical stakeholders identified multiple barriers, facilitators, and process preferences
for pediatric inpatient social needs screening, which may inform the future development
of feasible and sustainable implementation strategies.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: September 29, 2021
Accepted:
September 22,
2021
Received:
June 30,
2021
Footnotes
The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 by Academic Pediatric Association
