Missing social-needs screens leave surgeons blind to patient risk

Half of major elective surgery patients had no social-needs screening recorded, and handoff gaps were the main reason.

• Among 1,172 patients at three hospitals, 52% had missing data in at least one health-related social need domain.
• Fourteen nurses and nurse managers were interviewed; three themes emerged: communication gaps, patient factors, and workflow limits.
• Patient factors included postanesthesia mental status, language barriers, and reluctance to disclose sensitive information.

Surgical teams should not assume screening data exists before using it for risk assessment or discharge planning. The study identifies problems but does not test fixes, so it supports checking your own unit’s completion rates, not adopting a specific workflow yet.