Understanding How SDOH Impacts Scheduling Across a Hospital System

As part of our work with one health system, Authenticx was looking into the impact of Social Determinants of Health on their appointments and scheduling processes.

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) are “conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health and quality-of life-risks and outcomes.”

as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

This is a high priority for the health system because their mandate as a social safety net hospital includes providing care to their city’s most vulnerable populations. SDOH factors impact scheduling and other care services – for example, if a patient can’t drive or catch a bus to an appointment, there is risk of cancellation or a missed appointment. 

Authenticx in Action 

Authenticx processed nearly 24,000 interactions and evaluated 1818 using rule-based classifiers (RBCs) to identify instances where there was a mention of an SDOH.  

This analysis found that SDOH were discussed in 7% of processed calls. These categories included:  

• Neighborhood and Built Environment 
• Healthcare Access and Quality 
• Economic Stability 
• Social and Community Context 
• Education Access and Quality  

The top driver for callers experiencing an SDOH overwhelmingly was related to appointments and scheduling (69%), followed by message to provider (10%) and medical question (9%). When calling in to discuss appointments, patients expressed concern about losing their job, cost barriers, or a lack of transportation as examples.   

Result 

These insights highlight that patients want to attend their appointments, but are facing social barriers that prevent them from arriving at the scheduled time. This is important because there is growing industry recognition on the impact of SDOH when considering opportunities for health system improvements.  

From these patient insights, the organization has been able to:  

• Empower the team to share information with Social Services to help better serve their population holistically.  
• Provide opportunities for research and monitoring to have a real, measurable impact on serving vulnerable populations across their communities. 
• Reevaluate training and available resources to help referral coordinators assist patients when SDOHs are identified on a call. 

See Authenticx in Action

Learn more about how Authenticx analyzes customer conversations to surface recurring trends in this two-minute video.

About Authenticx

Authenticx was founded to analyze and activate customer interaction data at scale. Why? We wanted to reveal transformational opportunities in healthcare. We are on a mission to help humans understand humans. With a combined 100+ years of leadership experience in pharma, payer, and healthcare organizations, we know first-hand the challenges and opportunities that our clients face because we’ve been in your shoes.

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