NQF Releases Recommendations for Using SDOH Data
Connecting Patients With Community Resources to Improve Health:
NQF Releases Recommendations for Using SDOH Data
MAR 05, 2024
Experts tested recommendations in real-world healthcare settings to identify strategies to help patients address health-related social needs
Washington, DC – The National Quality Forum (NQF) has released recommendations for healthcare organizations seeking to help patients address the nonmedical factors impacting their health. With recent payer and purchaser expectations that providers collect data about patients’ social drivers of health (SDOH), providers are seeking solutions to the important matter of how to effectively use these data to achieve better outcomes for patients.
NQF’s Leadership Consortium, a group of senior healthcare experts and stakeholders, spent the past two years examining the issue, developing strategies, and then applying them in real-world healthcare settings to come up with a set of tested recommendations for navigating the complexities of leveraging SDOH data to improve health outcomes. The recommendations are summarized in a new report released today, Social Drivers of Health Data Utilization: Integrating Healthcare and Community Services to Address Health-Related Social Needs.
SDOH, such as access to healthy food, safe housing, and transportation, have a significant impact on an individual’s health outcomes. Up to 90 percent of health outcomes may be attributable to socioeconomic and behavioral factors broadly referred to as SDOH, according to the National Academy of Medicine. Healthcare teams are well positioned to identify patients’ health-related social needs (HRSNs) but struggle to address these needs that may go beyond the scope of patient encounters in care settings.
