– The North Caroline Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) partners with Phresia on its Healthy Opportunities imitative to help address the factors that drive health among patients statewide.
– Healthcare organizations will now use Phresia’s platform to deliver North Carolina’s Social Determinants of Health screening questions to identify patients who have unmet social needs impacting their healthcare.
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) has announced a partnership with patient intake platform Phresia. As part of the partnership Phresia assists NC DHHS with its Healthy Opportunities Initiative to help address the full set of factors that drive health among people in the state.
Social Determinants of Health Screening to Address Whole Person Health Among Its Residents
Healthcare organizations throughout the state can now use Phreesia’s patient intake platform to deliver North Carolina’s Standardized Social Determinants of Health Screening Questions to identify patients who have unmet social needs that impact their overall health. Phreesia can alert providers and care coordinators in real-time about patients’ individual needs so they can more fully understand a person’s holistic health.
In addition, NCCARE360, the first statewide coordinated network is being deployed across North Carolina currently and will make it easier to connect people to resources when those needs are identified.
The Bigger Picture
In North Carolina, many people struggle with unmet social needs. Research shows that up to 80% of a person’s overall health is driven by social and environmental factors. According to NC DHHS, more than 1.2 million North Carolinians cannot find affordable housing, and one in 28 children under age 6 is homeless. North Carolina has the 8th highest rate of food insecurity in the United States, with more than one in five children living in food-insecure households. Also, forty-seven percent of North Carolina women have experienced intimate partner violence.
Phreesia’s intake platform screens patients for unmet social and environmental needs and helps providers better understand their patients through proven technology that fits into the medical practice workflow and allows patients to answer sensitive questions privately and honestly.
“To advance the health and well-being of North Carolinians, we need to build a coordinated, whole person-centered system that addresses both medical and non-medical drivers of health,” said DHHS Secretary Mandy K. Cohen, M.D. “Our partnership with Phreesia will make it easier for doctors and other health care providers to ask patients about their non-medical health needs, which are a critical component of their overall health.”
