Improving patient outcomes by assessing unmet social needs: A preliminary study in a urologic oncology clinic.

Abstract

e23151 Background: Social determinants of health (SDOH) and Health-related social needs (HRSN) play a key role in care outcomes. Yet comprehensive assessments of social needs within clinics remains uncommon.Implementing a health-related social needs screening in clinical settings enables the identification of patients facing critical barriers, providing an opportunity to target these social needs and optimize care. Our aim is to analyze preliminary findings from social needs assessments among genitourinary cancer patients at a tertiary urologic oncology clinic, characterizing the unmet needs on this patient population. Methods: Screening began in January 2023 with survey questions targeting specific social needs (e.g.,financial strain, transportation issues, and food insecurity), incorporated into new patient and annual follow-up questionnaires for all patients in a urologic oncology faculty clinic. Clinical and demographic data, along with screening responses, were extracted from the electronic medical record, and summary statistics were computed. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In total 1,998 patients with urologic cancer diagnoses and self-reported social needs were identified; 1,443 patients with > 2 clinical encounters were included. Most were over 65 years old (75.6%) and male (92.7%). Prostate (71%), bladder (13.9%), and kidney (12.7%) cancers were the most common urologic cancers reported. Roughly one-third of patients reporting social needs (34.9%) drove more than 49 miles for urologic cancer care, outside of the range of current institutional efforts. Conclusions: Integrating social needs screening into the clinic’s workflow has highlighted significant variations in unmet needs across racial and ethnic groups within a urologic oncology patient population. Our findings demonstrate the need for a system-level initiative to identify social barriers preventing patients from accessing optimal care and utilizing data-driven approaches to guide the development of informed, targeted interventions that address our patient population's social needs, ultimately enhancing clinical care and expanding clinical trial participation.