Health-Related Social Needs Qualitative Evaluation
Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
RESEARCH COLLABORATION
The Need | The Learning Health System program, led by the Center for Accelerating Care Transformation at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, conducted a mixed-methods, pragmatic evaluation assessing the comparative effectiveness of two social health support programs. The evaluation came after we partnered with care delivery leaders to facilitate the launch of universal social needs screening and referral to Community Resource Specialists in two primary care clinics in Olympia and Spokane, Washington.
The Approach | Patients who reported social needs during screening were randomly assigned to receive assistance from either a local, clinic-based or centralized call center social health specialist. Ariel led the qualitative data collection, analysis, reporting, and manuscript submission for the evaluation. We interviewed 50 patients and 28 workforce members, including clinic leaders, providers, medical assistants, and community resource specialists.
The Outcomes | We used semi-structured interviews and a Rapid Analysis Process to collect and analyze our data. We learned an incredible amount about the successes, challenges, and complexities of trying to address health-related social needs in healthcare settings.
The Learnings | We learned so much from the 50 patients we talked to, and are excited to share what we heard through a recently-submitted paper. Stay tuned for updates on the other side of peer review!
Our biggest takeaways from interviewing 28 primary care workforce members were:
The people working in primary care see the effects of social circumstances on health all day and are generally supportive of integrating social health care
Delivering high-functioning, integrated care requires a team
Good teamwork is facilitated by presence, proximity, and relationships between team members
The Ten Building Blocks of Primary Care are still relevant and essential when integrating a new practice area like social health
Check out our poster at the SIREN 2025 National Research Meetingto hear more about what we learned through this evaluation about primary care adoption and patient reach!
