The Homelessness Project utilized the CAPriCORN network to evaluate health service use among the homeless across the following six large Chicago health systems: Alliance Chicago, Cook County Health, Northwestern Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, University of Chicago and University of Illinois Health.
MRAIA servesd as the neutral data broker to join health system diagnosis and visit history to the regional HMIS data from the city of Chicago and suburban Cook County.
We evaluated fragmentation of care, comorbidities, and health services use among the homeless population. The project revealed that homelessness was much more common than previously recognized through health system billing codes, and there was a subset of homeless who had not received services from the homeless system. The project found a strong association between stable housing and avoidance of emergency department visits and hospitalizations.