Evaluating the Impact of a Mobile Integrated Health‒Community Paramedicine Program on Health-Related Social Needs and Hospital Readmissions.

Objective: Evaluate a mobile integrated health-community paramedicine program's effect on addressing health-related social needs and their association with hospital readmissions.

Methods: This observational study enrolled 1,003 patients from 5/4/2018-7/23/21. Descriptive statistics summarize social needs. A Poisson regression model examined the association of interventions for social needs with 30-day readmissions.

Results: Patients who had their medication-related needs fully addressed had a 65% lower rate of total 30-day readmission compared with patients who had no such needs fully addressed (IRR=0.35, 95% CI 0.18-0.68, P=.002). No variables reached statistical significance related to unplanned 30-day readmissions, aside from the HOSPITAL Score.

Conclusions: Assisting patients with medication-related needs is associated with reductions in overall 30-day readmissions. Interventions within most domains were not associated with reductions in overall or unplanned 30-day readmissions. This program had greater success addressing needs with one-step interventions, suggesting additional time and resources may be necessary to address complex social needs.