Overview:
In partnership with BJC HealthCare, Freeman Health System, and Mercy, HIDI leveraged Master Patient Indexing (MPI) to link social care referral data from the Unite Us platform with hospital claims across Missouri. This pioneering study explored the alignment between social care referrals and clinical documentation of social needs (SDOH Z codes).

Impact Highlights:

• 91% match rate between social care referrals and hospital claims using HIDI MPI

• 3,208 patients and 3,870 referral cases evaluated across 10 hospitals and three health systems

• Identified major gaps: Less than 50% of patients referred for social care services had corresponding SDOH Z codes documented in their hospital records

• Uncovered key system barriers impacting social care data capture, including limited SDOH screening frequency, referral network availability, and coding inconsistencies

• Demonstrated the need for aligned, multi-source data strategies to fully capture patients’ social needs

Why It Matters:
This project validated the importance of integrating hospital claims with social care referral platforms to provide a more complete picture of patient needs. It also informed health system leaders about opportunities to improve data capture, standardization, and care coordination, especially as social care quality measures become more prominent in federal reporting requirements.