Managed Healthcare Executive March 5, 2021
Study in Colorado maps correlations between social risk factors and emergency department use, including the “superutilizers.”
Overreliance on geographic or population averages to quantify and measure social determinants of health (SDOH) can send healthcare organizations down a costly and inefficient path when it comes to designing interventions to improve outcomes and reduce costs. Because these averages tend to mask the discrete patient experiences, their use can result in programs that fail to fully address the barriers representing the greatest potential for improving health outcomes — and healthcare organizations’ returns on investment.
A better approach is to first understand the unique fingerprint of risk within a defined patient population. This knowledge enables identification of optimal intervention opportunities and estimation of those...