366 - Piloting Community Health Workers in the Primary Care Medical Home and Mobile Medical Program

Poster Number: 366
Publication Number: 366.1145

Background: Community Health Workers (CHW) can be an asset to the primary care medical home (PCMH). They support health care delivery through care coordination, resource connection and education. Their impact may be greater when their ethnicity and lived experience reflects that of the community. In 2022, Children’s National at the Town Hall Education Arts and Recreation Campus and the Mobile Medical Program (MMP) initiated a pilot to incorporate CHWs. Their core responsibility was to implement social determinants of health (SDoH) screeners and resource connection. Their duties have grown based on community need and now include care coordination for newly arrived immigrants serviced by the MMP.

Objective: 1. Describe the duties, workflows and documentation processes for CHWs.
2. Review key themes and sub-themes from semi-structured interviews.
3. Review SDoH trends from the mobile medical program and the fixed facility.

Design/Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted by an independent evaluator and were coded for major themes and sub-themes. The electronic medical record and databases were used to capture quantitative data regarding the number of screeners, time invested in resource coordination and outcomes of resource connection.

Results: Themes from the semi-structured interviews were grouped into the following categories: training, expectations, access to help, fair treatment and resources. Interviews highlighted that CHWs appreciate working with families with significant need, giving back to the community where they currently or previously lived/worked and positive work life balance. Areas for improvement include interest in taking on more tasks and addressing the repetitive nature of some of the work.
The CHWs have conducted over 1000 SDoH screeners. The majority of the families reside in DC's wards 7 and 8. The greatest needs identified were food insecurity and utility assistance. For the newly arrived immigrant population, there was significant need for assistance with benefits. The majority of families were provided with targeted resources based on their needs. The CHWs were able to close the loop with 20% of families confirming resource connection.

Conclusion(s): The pilot of CHWs has been beneficial to the patients at THEARC health center and MMP. There is evidence of job satisfaction and support but there is also interest in broadening the scope of work. Next steps include refining workflows to improve closed loop communication around resource connection which will include feedback from the target population.