Transforming Care and Payment Priorities for Vulnerable Families

Baylor College of Medicine

Status: Completed

Conditions: Social Stress

Treatments: Other: Screening survey and accompanying handout for resources

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03416712

H-38428

Details and patient eligibility

About

This will be a randomized control trial of 800 children admitted to the Pediatric Hospital Medicine service at Texas Children's Hospital. Each eligible participant will give informed consent prior to enrollment. Study participants will be randomized into an intervention (400 participants) or control group (400 participants). The intervention group will receive a survey (WE CARE HOUSTON) that has been designed to assess family need for community resources that address the SDH (such as food insecurity, housing insecurity, etc.). The intervention group will receive referrals to community resources based on their responses to the WE CARE HOUSTON survey.

Full description

This will be a randomized control trial of 800 children admitted to the Pediatric Hospital Medicine service at Texas Children's Hospital. Each eligible participant will give informed consent prior to enrollment.

Study participants will be randomized into an intervention (400 participants) or control group (400 participants). The intervention group will receive a survey (WE CARE HOUSTON) that has been designed to assess family need for community resources that address the SDH (such as food insecurity, housing insecurity, etc.). The intervention group will receive referrals to community resources based on their responses to the WE CARE HOUSTON survey. The intervention group will receive a phone call within 3 months of discharge to ask if they have had trouble following up with resources.

Both the intervention and the control groups will be followed for 6 months. Study investigators will obtain outcome data through structured telephone interviews at 6 months and also through medical record review.

This research has been designed to test our hypotheses:

1. The use of the WE CARE HOUSTON screening tool and subsequent referral to community resources will result in increased family participation in community resources that address the SDH; i.e. we believe that the intervention group will enroll in more community resources than the control group over the 6 month study period.
2. The use of the WE CARE HOUSTON screening tool and subsequent referral to community resources will result in improved health outcomes, i.e. children in the intervention group will have fewer emergency department visits, fewer readmissions, improved BMI and improved parent perception of child's health during the study period.

Enrollment: 430 patients

Sex: All

Ages: Under 18 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Children admitted to pediatric hospital medicine service

Exclusion criteria

• Children in child protective service custody
• Children residing outside of the greater Houston area

Trial design

Primary purpose: Screening

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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430 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

To obtain baseline socioeconomic data on all children (intervention and control), study participants will utilize the Children's HealthWatch Survey (www.childrenshealthwatch.org), which is a standardized, validated survey designed to collect demographics and information on child health and development, parental health, and socioeconomic factors income, education level, financial literacy, childcare, and government assistance). The control group will not complete the WE CARE HOUSTON survey and will not receive any referrals to community resources from the study team at the time of enrollment (they may be referred to resources by their medical/clinical team as per standard of care during their hospitalization at Texas Children's Hospital). The study investigators will offer control participants information on community resources at the end of the study. Study participants will be called for a 6 month follow up structure telephone survey.

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

The intervention group will complete a short survey called the WE CARE HOUSTON survey. The WE CARE HOUSTON survey has been designed to quickly assess patient need for local services that address the social determinants of health. The WE CARE HOUSTON survey will be administered on paper or verbally if family is not able to read. Based on the parent's responses to the screening survey, the study investigators will use an algorithm to direct families to appropriate services and community resources. Families who screen positive for social needs will receive a handout on resources. For the families that screen positive for depression/ mental health needs, domestic violence, or alcohol and drug abuse, the study investigators will notify the medical/clinical team and recommend an inpatient social work prior to discharge. Intervention participants will be called 1 week-2 months after enrollment to follow up on resources and will be called for a 6 month follow up structured telephone survey.

Treatment:

Other: Screening survey and accompanying handout for resources