Health & Healthcare: All Related Resources

 Traumatic injury is a major cause of morbidity for people experiencing homelessness (PEH), however, injury patterns and subsequent hospitalization among PEH have not been studied on a national scale. In this national retrospective observational cohort study, researchers evaluated whether differences in mechanisms of injury exist between PEH and housed trauma patients in North America and whether the lack of housing is associated with increased adjusted odds of hospital admission. Researchers found that injured PEH had a significantly adjusted greater odds of hospital admissions.

Little is known how older adults with a current or recent experience of homelessness navigated the switch to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers examined the perceptions and use of telehealth, sampling from a larger longitudinal study on homeless-experienced adults in Oakland, CA. They found that the participants experienced challenges accessing the necessary technologies for telehealth.

This study from BHHI researchers describes five distinct subgroups of the highest users of the health care system in San Francisco with differential comorbidities, health care needs, and social determinants of health, spanning from patients with medical comorbidities solely using medical services to patients grappling with housing insecurity, incarceration, substance use disorder, and mental health comorbidities. Frequent users of the health care system are not a homogenous population as previously thought. This study sheds new light on how to help the most vulnerable patients and inform clinicians and care coordination teams on making sure patients get the care they need the most. 

Patients with prolonged hospitalizations often require alternative levels of care (ALC) and there stays strain hospital capacity and patient flow. This study aimed to descriptively compare prolonged ALC and short ALC. Researchers found that patients with prolonged ALC were more likely to be older and have experienced homelessness. Furthermore, prolonged ALC patients were more likely to be admitted for acute care and had greater psychosocial complexity.