Digitizing community resources and closed-loop referral system to identify top sought health-related social needs (HRSN) in a community cancer center.

154 Background: Prior to implementation of a digital closed-loop referral system, community resources were not centralized, and knowledge of resources varied between clinic staff within a community cancer center treating patients throughout the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Referrals to community-based organizations (CBO) were found in the electronic health record as unstructured data and were difficult to track manually. As an organization, the medical care team needed to identify top sought HRSNs to better understand health equity needs in our community. Methods: 2023 Q1: Partnered with Findhelp, a social needs closed-loop referral platform. 2023 Q2-4: Attended Findhelp train-the-trainer education and began building a customized oncology database of local, regional, and national resources. Developed a process to log community-based referrals, update the referral status, and close the referral loop within Findhelp for individual patients. Educated and trained support services staff. 2024 Q1: Utilized Findhelp data analytics to review and evaluate closed-loop referral system and top sought HRSNs. Results: We describe our results to date (Table). Conclusions: Digitizing community resources and establishing a closed-loop referral process between the community cancer center and CBOs allowed accurate data tracking and increased access to data to ensure patients’ needs were met. After eight months, financial toxicity, housing insecurity, and food insecurity were identified as the top three sought HRSNs. In the future, increased data will help evaluate gaps in resources and leverage stronger relationships with CBOs to meet patients’ HRSNs in a community cancer center. Month % Closing the Referral Loop (patients with closed-loop referrals/total patient referrals) Top Sought HRSN Needs July 2023 74% (50/68) Help pay for healthcare August 2023 68% (51/75) Help pay for healthcare September 2023 80% (59/74) Housing October 2023 67% (66/98) Help pay for healthcare November 2023 78% (51/65) Food December 2023 86% (55/64) Support/Counseling January 2024 83% (52/63) Help pay for healthcare February 2024 65% (56/86) Food