OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (September 29, 2022)—WellSky, a health and community care technology company, announced it is taking a significant role in the national effort to increase access to and facilitate sharing of social determinants of health (SDoH) information across care settings. WellSky’s commitment was recognized on Sept. 28, at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
The “Sync for Social Needs” coalition will unite HL7 International, Rush University System for Health, Tufts Medicine, Riverside Health System, SCAN Health Plan, Sanford Health System, BayCare, Geisinger and the Veterans Health Administration to standardize sharing of the types of patient data screened for, collected and integrated on social determinants of health like food insecurity.
As a member of the coalition, WellSky will evaluate and plan to pilot the integration of specific social needs screening tools in electronic medical record systems. Additionally, the leading standards bodies—from the National Quality Forum and the National Committee for Quality Assurance to the Joint Commission—will work with participants to scale this approach across more standards-based tools that lower clinicians’ burden to screen for social needs.
“Too many Americans are facing social barriers that prevent them from living their best, healthiest lives,” said Bill Miller, CEO of WellSky. “Making it easier for health care and community-based care providers to communicate and collaborate using technology will go a long way toward ensuring more people have access to not only medical services but also the essentials like food, housing, and transportation that contribute to whole-person health.”
It is well documented that more than 60% of our health is impacted by social factors like access to food, jobs, childcare and housing. The WellSky Social Care Coordination solution provides an infrastructure that integrates social supports into health care delivery through a comprehensive national directory of social services and predictive analytics for assessing social risk. With a national database of more than 400,000 social service organizations and networks of 20,000 community- and home-based providers—including the majority of the nation’s Continuums of Care (CoCs) and Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs)—these tools empower payers and providers to improve health equity and outcomes through targeted interventions that address socioeconomic barriers to health and wellness.
Visit wellsky.com for more information.
