Hospitals can play an important role screening for and addressing unmet health-related social needs in their communities. For instance, many hospitals offer programs that go beyond traditional medical care to help patients with food insecurity or social isolation.
A new analysis led by NYU School of Global Public Health doctoral student Dina Zein—along with Professor Ji Chang, doctoral student Elizabeth McNeill, and colleagues from Ohio University and Florida Atlantic University—finds that hospital leadership involvement makes a difference in what social needs programs hospitals offer. Using data from more than 2,200 hospitals that responded to the 2022 American Hospital Association’s annual survey, the researchers found that hospitals where both senior leaders (such as CEOs) and middle managers were involved were much more likely to offer programs to address patient social needs related to food insecurity, housing, transportation, interpersonal violence, and social isolation. The results are published in JAMA Network Open.
“These findings back up the idea that meaningful progress on health equity requires involvement from multiple levels of the organization,” said Zein.