“The Journey to a Healthier Wisconsin” series is a four-part social determinants of health (SDOH) webinar series that provides hospitals and health systems valuable information to help improve health outcomes in their communities. Below are summaries of webinars 1-3.
The first webinar, “Setting the Stage for SDOH Z-Code Data Capture” held in January, featured Gloria Kupferman of the American Hospital Association, and focused on the importance of Z code collection from the national perspective, the importance of capturing SDOH in the medical record and an overview of the status of Z-code collection in Wisconsin hospitals with data shared by WHA Information Center.
Webinar two, "Tales from the Trenches," held April 27, featured Bellin Hospital’s journey. According to Jordan Kerscher, Bellin’s population health operational lead, leadership buy-in starts by aligning with the organization’s mission and vision. Bellin’s work began in 2018 when they developed a screening strategy in primary care for adults, and eventually rolling it out to adolescents and children. Patients complete a questionnaire annually at their primary care visit. From there, a care team identifies SDOH risks from a software program, and a unique patient composite score is created. The custom built SmartSet contains resources for each SDOH category.
Webinar three, held in July, hosted Jacqueline Whelan, director of care integration from Children’s Wisconsin to speak on their journey to embed social needs screening and support in the pediatric care delivery model. She spotlighted their emergency department food insecurity screening and support program journey starting in October 2020 to current time. She discussed their current workflows and documentation along with other programs and projects in development to improve on screening. Jacquleine highlighted four main steps in their facilities process including: social needs screening and documentation, care team member role clarity to support social needs, connecting to internal and community-based resources and support, and z-coding, payer partnerships and reimbursement to support whole family health.
The recordings of “The Journey to a Healthier Wisconsin” series can be found on the WHA Education and Events page, in the
On Demand Learning Center “Videos & Recorded Webinars” section.