The Front Door Initiative (FDI) for Social Emergency Medicine at Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Jefferson Hospital is a comprehensive effort to better understand and address the social determinants of health among patients who visit the hospital’s emergency department. Many health challenges faced by our community members can be attributed to or exacerbated by issues such as food insecurity, domestic violence, homelessness, limited access to transportation, and a host of other issues.

Funded through a 4-year, $1 million grant from the Jefferson Regional Foundation – the largest in the Foundation’s history – the project serves the 50,000+ patients who come through the door on an annual basis. Patients who present at the Jefferson Emergency Department, are discharged, and have one or more social determinants of health needs are eligible to be referred to the FDI program. FDI patients are connected to community resources to help them meet their social determinants of health needs.

“In wrapping up our second year of this effort, the number of impact and gratitude stories shared by our patients continue to inspire the FDI team to build connectivity to resources outside of the hospital to coordinate the right support,” says Ally Lush, senior project manager for the FDI.

This impact was exemplified recently with a patient who was previously in and out of the Emergency Department for non-emergent needs, reporting that she was now very happy with connections made to other community organizations including Meals on Wheels and Squirrel Hill Health Center.

The work of the FDI team has gained significant momentum and includes local partnerships with AAA, LifeSpan, Eastern Area Adult Services, and Traveler’s Aid, with others continuing to grow. In addition to these partnerships, FDI has outreached to over 50 organizations in the region, forging connections with groups across the region.

“In addition to connecting patients to services, screening of all patients in the Emergency Department serves to overcome the stigma that can be associated with discussing needs outside of an acute health issue,” says Lush. “The FDI team is thrilled to continue to work with the Jefferson Regional Foundation to effectively connect our patients to resources to get better, stay well, and contribute toward a best-practice model to address patient social determinants of health needs.”