CL-02: IMPROVING ACCESS TO NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT ON SURGICAL SERVICES
Micah Ulrich, BSc¹, Caroline Jirka, BSc¹, Megan Janeway, MD², Lauren Burdine, BSc¹, Sabrina Sanchez, MD, MPH², Lisa Allee, MSW, LICSW², Tracey Dechert, MD, FACS²; ¹Boston University School of Medicine, ²Boston Medical Center

Background: Food insecurity affects a disproportionately high number of patients at safety-net hospitals. This study examines whether an educational intervention on food insecurity screening improves patient access to nutrition supplementation

Methods: We administered a pre- and post-intervention survey to inpatient surgical providers to assess existing knowledge and practices regarding food insecurity screening. All providers received a standardized education intervention on screening for food insecurity, writing food pantry referrals, and providing education to patients. Referrals made to the food pantry were tracked at 3 months post-intervention.

Results: Of 58 providers, 56 (96.5%) reported access to healthy food after surgery as important/extremely important while only 25.8% reported screening patients for food insecurity. Following intervention, 77.6% endorsed screening patients regularly (p<0.001). 10.3% knew how to identify eligibility and how to write a referral to the food pantry compared to 96.5% and 93.1% respectively post-intervention (p<0.001). Self-reported food pantry referrals increased from 6.9% to 41.3% and 47 additional referrals were noted 3 months post-intervention. All survey respondents reported the brief educational session to be “helpful.”

Conclusions: Training providers to screen for social determinants of health including food security and connecting patients with nutritional resources is beneficial for patients and well received by providers.