Social Risk Screening Tools

Social risks refer to the social and relational factors that have been found to influence individual health outcomes. The National Academies of Sciences identifies social risk domains, including socioeconomic position, sex, social relationships, and residential and community context. In healthcare settings, specialized screening tools can enable providers and professionals to assess and monitor social risks and needs of patients to address social determinants of health (SDOH).

Examples of social risk screening tools available for download and printing include:

• Health-Related Social Needs (HRSN) Screening Tool – The HRSN is a standard screening tool developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to determine if systematically screening for health-related social needs has an effect on total healthcare costs and health outcomes. The HRSN Screening tool includes 10 items categorized into 5 domains: housing instability, food insecurity, transportation problems, utility help needs, and interpersonal safety.
• PRAPARE Implementation and Action Toolkit – PRAPARE — the Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patients' Assets, Risks, and Experiences — is an assessment tool, developed based on a review of existing SDOH, that consists of a set of national core measures to standardize data collection. The tool is accompanied by a toolkit that compiles resources, best practices, and lessons learned from health centers focused on how to implement an SDOH data collection initiative.

Rural communities can also use electronic tools to screen for SDOH in healthcare settings. These tools can record findings directly in a patient's electronic health record. For example, healthcare providers can now use select ICD-10-CM codes to identify patients with potential health hazards that may be related to socioeconomic and psychosocial circumstances.