Beyond Business
The Intersection of Health Administration and Patient Care
D
r. Ganisher Davlyatov briefly hesitates when asked about his interdisciplinary research. He notes that much of his work involves health-related research and participation in various projects. As he begins to discuss his current projects, Davlyatov’s initial uncertainty about discussing interdisciplinary research quickly vanishes. Social Workers and CMS Determinants of Health Screening One of his interdisciplinary projects focuses on collaborating with social workers to collect data on the social determinants of health. He notes, “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services encourage all health care organizations to collect social determinants of health measures from patients.” This means that OU Health also collects the data to ensure compliance with CMS requirements. While nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians and other health care providers can conduct the screening, typically, it is the social workers who conduct more in-depth assessments and connect patients with necessary resources and support services. He has found that a significant barrier to data collection is that social workers aren't paid enough for the time they spend conducting the screenings. That's the first issue. The second issue is the challenge of seeing the benefits of conducting the screenings. “I have spoken with social workers, and they don’t see the value because we just do it for the sake of compliance, but we are not following up and helping the patients,” states Davlyatov. The screening data is much more valuable if utilized to help improve the quality of life and access to care for patients. “My goal is to figure out how we can use this data to help people,” says Davlyatov. For this project, he is interviewing social workers to understand how the screening rates can be increased, how the social workers can be fairly compensated for their time, and ways to ensure patients benefit from the screening data. The second component of this research is looking at disparities in how social determinants data are collected. “Let's say we have 10,000 patients, and we need to screen all of them (100% response rate), but that's not possible for a variety of reasons (e.g., time, availability of social workers, and patients’ willingness to respond),” Davlyatov explains. “In an ideal scenario, screening would be random, but the reality is that individual demographic factors such as the patient's race, age, gender, and even clothing could affect the likelihood of one’s screening.” Davlyatov stresses the need for continuous education and monitoring of the screening process to minimize selection bias and ensure random screening selections. He appreciates that this research has exposed him to the field of social work, helped him understand their perspectives and shed light on why the response rate is so low. “As a researcher in health care administration, I'm thinking about developing a process so that the patients benefit from the screenings and the health care providers are motivated to conduct them,” states Davlyatov.
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OU Public Health | fall 2023
OU Public Health | fall 2023
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