This policy brief used American Hospital Association (AHA) survey data to examine partnerships between hospitals and external organizations to address social needs. Hospitals were stratified by rurality (metropolitan or non-metropolitan) and type—prospective payment system (PPS) or critical access hospital (CAH) as well as by region, ownership status and accountable care organization (ACO) participation. We calculated a partnership score for all hospitals reflective of the number of types of partnerships and the number of ways that hospital partner to address social needs with scores ranging from 0 to 48. We also assessed what types of specific partnerships hospitals indicated. Key findings are noted below:
- The highest mean community partnership scores were seen in metropolitan PPS hospitals (24.0), followed by non-metropolitan PPS hospitals (20.4) and CAHs (16.8).
- Except for non-metropolitan PPS hospitals in the West, the Northeast had the highest mean partnerships across hospital types.
- Regardless of geography or type (CAH or PPS), non-profit hospitals and those participating in ACOs had higher mean partnership scores.
Most hospitals had partnerships with state and local agencies, though compared to other types of hospitals, a higher proportion of metropolitan PPS hospitals had partnerships with organizations that address specific social needs (e.g., food insecurity).
Authors: Whitney E. Zahnd, PhD; Khyathi Gadag, MHA; Kristin D. Wilson, PhD, MHA; Keith J. Mueller, PhD
Contact Information: Lead Author: Whitney Zahnd, PhD; whitney-zahnd@uiowa.edu