In 2018, Main Line Health transitioned to a new electronic health record platform, Epic, and seized the opportunity to integrate social and behavioral factors into the electronic record, which now:
- Allows for a more sophisticated stratification of data to uncover disparities in care and develop solutions to address these disparities
- Captures sexual orientation and gender identity
- Acquires information on patients’ nonmedical barriers to care (such as transportation, food insecurity or income)
The integration of social and behavioral domains allows the interprofessional team to develop comprehensive care plans that address the concerns of vulnerable and high-risk populations.
This is just one way Main Line Health is working to build infrastructure that supports equity. Other initiatives include:
- Main Line Health has appointed a system director of “health equity”
- Community Health Services was transformed to Community Health and Equity
- A program administrator was appointed to Main Line Health’s medical student advocacy program
- A role was created for a fellow in Health Care Disparities
- A special team was formed to address the health needs of the community’s most complex and vulnerable patients