Envisioning a Social-Health Information Exchange as a Platform to Support a Patient-Centered Medical Neighborhood: A Feasibility Study

BACKGROUND: Social determinants directly contribute to poorer health, and coordination between healthcare and community-based resources is pivotal to addressing these needs. However, our healthcare system remains poorly equipped to address social determinants of health. The potential of health information technology to bridge this gap across the delivery of healthcare and social services remains unrealized. OBJECTIVE, DESIGN, AND PARTICIPANTS: We conducted in-depth, in-person interviews with 50 healthcare and social service providers to determine the feasibility of a social-health information exchange (S-HIE) in an urban safety-net setting in Dallas County, Texas. After completion of interviews, we conducted a town hall meeting to identify desired functionalities for a S-HIE. APPROACH: We conducted thematic analysis of interview responses using the constant comparative method to explore perceptions about current communication and coordination across sectors, and barriers and enablers to S-HIE implementation. We sought participant confirmation of findings and conducted a forced-rank vote during the town hall to prioritize potential S-HIE functionalities. KEY RESULTS: We found that healthcare and social service providers perceived a need for improved information sharing, communication, and care coordination across sectors and were enthusiastic about the potential of a S-HIE, but shared many technical, legal, and ethical concerns around cross-sector information sharing. Desired technical S-HIE functionalities encompassed fairly simple transactional operations such as the ability to view basic demographic information, visit and referral data, and medical history from both healthcare and social service settings. CONCLUSIONS: A S-HIE is an innovative and feasible approach to enabling better linkages between healthcare and social service providers. However, to develop S-HIEs in communities across the country, policy interventions are needed to standardize regulatory requirements, to foster increased IT capability and uptake among social service agencies, and to align healthcare and social service priorities to enable dissemination and broader adoption of this and similar IT initiatives.