Caring for Communities: Comparing Health Care System Patient Populations to Regional Populations.

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Population Health Management
• Health Equity Studies

Background:

• Integrated health care delivery systems are growing in the USA.
• This expansion raises questions about how patient populations compare to the general population served.
• Focusing on neighborhood social determinants of health (SDOH) is crucial for understanding disparities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and demonstrate a method for comparing patient demographics and neighborhood characteristics.
• To analyze the neighborhood social determinants of health (SDOH) of patients within a large public health system.
• To compare these patient characteristics against the broader regional population.

Main Methods:

• Descriptive and graphical analysis comparing UNC Health patients and the North Carolina (NC) population.
• Utilized electronic health record data (5-year period) for patients.
• Employed American Community Survey (ACS) data for neighborhood SDOH indices and demographic comparisons.

Main Results:

• Patients were more concentrated in neighborhoods at the extremes of social disadvantage.
• However, racial and ethnic group distributions across SDOH scores were similar between patients and the NC population.
• This suggests nuanced patterns in how different demographic groups access care within the system.

Conclusions:

• An effective approach was demonstrated for comparing health system patients to the regional population using accessible data.
• Findings highlight similarities in demographic and neighborhood patterns but also point to higher patient concentrations in highly disadvantaged areas.
• This methodology can inform population health strategies and resource allocation within integrated health systems.