Understanding the Value of Community Vital Signs in Primary Care

The investigators will integrate community vital signs into clinical data, identify cold spots, and determine prospectively how clinicians use these community data at the point of care and for populations of patients. The investigators hypothesize that (1) the patients in a primary care practice live in a range of communities with different social determinants of health, including cold spots that lack health-promoting resources, (2) community vital signs are associated with patient health outcomes (e.g., being up-to-date with preventive care, control of chronic conditions, morbidity), and (3) knowing that a patient resides in a cold spot will help clinicians improve patient care. Aim 1a: Determine community vital sign cold spots in the catchment area of 12 primary care practices. Aim 1b: Determine whether patients residing in cold spots experience worse outcomes, such as receiving inadequate care, worse chronic disease control, or higher morbidity. Aim 2: Determine whether knowing a patient's community vital signs and social needs at the point of care will change clinical management; and explore how practices could use community vital signs for population care. Aim 3: Identify other community vital signs that practices would find useful for managing patients.