Patient Barriers to Accessing Referred Resources for Unmet Social Needs

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Figure 1.
Flow diagram of patients included in qualitative analysis. Abbreviation: PRAPARE, Responding to and Assessing Patients' Assets Risks and Experiences.
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Figure 2.
Distribution of 537 patient-reported reasons for not accessing referred resources according to Levesque et al.'s conceptual framework for health care access^a,b.

Table 1.

Characteristics of Patients Who Reported Barriers to Access (n = 366)

Patient Characteristic	Patient Sample, % (n)
Age, med. (Q1 – Q3)	51.4 (42.0–58.9)
Sex
Female	66.2 (231)
Male	33.8 (118)
Race/Ethnicity
Black, non-Hispanic	48.9 (163)
White, non-Hispanic	9.6 (32)
Hispanic^*	41.2 (148)
Primary language
English	62.0 (227)
Spanish	37.7 (138)
Other	0.3 (1)
Highest level of education
Less than high school	36.7 (125)
High school or GED	37.0 (126)
More than high school	26.4 (90)
Work situation
Full-time	14.7 (53)
Part-time	15.0 (54)
Unemployed, seeking work	41.0 (148)
Unemployed, not seeking work	29.4 (106)
Main insurance
Uninsured	71.8 (262)
Medicaid	11.5 (42)
Medicare	11.2 (41)
Other public	4.7 (17)
Private	0.8 (3)
Unmet social needs documented
Housing	44.3 (159)
Access to medicine or healthcare	41.9 (152)
Food	39.4 (143)
High stress	39.2 (142)
Social isolation	32.0 (116)
Transportation	22.7 (82)
Utilities	21.2 (77)
Safety at residence	6.9 (25)
Afraid of partner	3.9 (14)
Number of received referrals, med. (Q1 – Q3)	2 (1–3)
Category of received referrals
Access to medicine or healthcare	49.7 (182)
Food	41.5 (152)
Financial assistance	35.8 (131)
Social or emotional health	22.7 (83)
Transportation	12.8 (47)
Housing	9.8 (36)
Other	11.5 (42)
Connection status with referral at 2-weeks
Started services with a resource	19.8 (71)
In process of starting services with a resource	17.8 (64)
Contact attempted with at least one resource	15.3 (55)
Contact not attempted with any resources	47.1 (169)