Download or read book Social Emergency Medicine and the Urban Underserved written by Diane C. Lee and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dialogue and policy surrounding healthcare reform have drawn increasing interest to the social determinants of health (SDOH) that affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes for the urban medically underserved. Social emergency medicine expands the role of emergency department (ED) physicians by applying knowledge about SDOH to the bedside and developing effective systemic interventions. Since emergency rooms are often the only consistent source of medical care and information for this vulnerable population, technologies such as patient portals can keep these patients informed and reduce non-urgent visits to overburdened EDs. Utilizing a quantitative approach, the research objective was to examine the effect of social factors (social determinants of health), trust, and concern for information privacy as predictors in influencing behavior intentions of portal adoption by a medically underserved population who use the ED as their primary source of care. A survey was administered to a sample of emergency medicine patients at an urban Philadelphia hospital. Findings from existing literature identifying social factors that may contribute to health and healthcare disparities (e.g., age, income, education, health status, and health literacy) were not shown to influence behavior intentions to portal adoption in this unique medical context. Alternatively, trust, shown to be a strong predictor in information technology (IT) adoption, was well-supported in this study across the entire patient population. Concern for information privacy (CFIP) was shown to moderate patients' intentions, but only for men. Other significant findings emerging as factors influencing portal adoption were gender effects, where social relationships and interaction factors were significant for women, while independence and mastery of skill were significant for men. Intentions toward portal adoption was also affected by prior portal usage, with those patients who had used a portal being most likely to continue to use one and those not previously using a portal being less likely to adopt its usage. Differentiated marketing strategies and training were identified as key initiatives for achieving desired outcomes. Additionally, cultivating the patient-provider relationship may significantly influence behavioral intentions for portal acceptance and adoption that may provide value in improving health outcomes.