Published on: 2026-10-20
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
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Five years ago, Moscow became the first region in Russia to establish a social service in hospitals — a unique service that allows patients to receive comprehensive support on non-medical issues and psychological assistance during their hospital stay. This was reported on his channel in in the messenger “Max” Sergey Sobyanin.
“There is no need to write any statements — it is enough to contact the attending physician or during rounds to one of the 150 social coordinators working according to a unified standard in adult and children’s hospitals of the capital. Special attention is paid to elderly and lonely patients, immobile city residents, and those who find themselves in difficult life situations,” wrote the Mayor of Moscow.
Source: Sergey Sobyanin’s channel on in the messenger “Max”
Before starting work, every specialist undergoes training and internship — from learning the basics of providing assistance to practicing practical situations of interaction with patients and medical staff.
Over five years, social coordinators and psychologists have resolved more than 530 thousand non-medical issues and assisted over 280 thousand hospital patients and their relatives. It is very important that their presence significantly reduces the non-core workload on doctors and nursing staff. This allows them to devote more time and attention to their primary function—treating patients.
More than one-third of non-medical requests are psychological consultations. About 225,000 such services have been provided over five years. Specialists help patients cope with anxieties and other emotions, prepare for treatment, and mobilize additional resources for recovery. Support for patients with cancer diagnoses and their loved ones is provided by specialized professionals — oncopsychologists. Their services are available at outpatient oncology care centers.
A significant portion of the requests relate to assistance with hospital discharge, loss of documents, loss of contact with relatives (for example, when a phone is lost), accompaniment home, organization of social worker services, as well as arranging training for relatives in caring for patients with limited mobility.
How the social service was created in hospitals
The social service in Moscow hospitals began to take shape during the COVID-19 pandemic. In specially deployed hospitals, social workers collaborated with medical staff to promptly address patients’ issues unrelated to medical treatment. Coordinators helped locate relatives and organized home care after discharge for solitary city residents.
The effectiveness of this work served as an impetus for the further development of the service. In 2021, a pilot project was launched in seven Moscow hospitals, and by 2024, social coordinators appeared in all adult and children’s general city hospitals.
In 2025, the project was expanded to include five more specialized medical institutions — Infectious Clinical Hospitals No. 1 and 2, the Moscow Clinical Scientific Center named after A.S. Loginov, the L.I. Sverzhevsky Research Clinical Institute of Otorhinolaryngology, and the Moscow Scientific and Practical Center for Medical Rehabilitation, Restorative and Sports Medicine named after S.I. Spasokukotsky.
How social coordinators help patients
Every day, social coordinators make rounds of patients and also accept requests from doctors for targeted assistance. Special attention is given to the elderly and lonely people, low-mobility city residents, and those who find themselves in difficult life situations.
If a patient seeks help, specialists clarify the nature of the problem, study the specific life circumstances, and develop an individual plan to address the arising difficulties. It is the social coordinators who contact the relatives if the patient, for some reason, cannot call them themselves. In addition, they handle more complex cases, such as assisting in the recovery of lost documents.
In children’s hospitals, specialists primarily interact with the parents and legal guardians of young patients. They advise families on available social support services, assist with the processing of necessary documents, and also monitor the timeliness of care provided.
When discharging a patient from the hospital, specialists must ensure that the person has received all the necessary social assistance and is in safe conditions.
The most important task of coordinators is to take care in advance of solving the patient’s social problems that arise after discharge from the hospital. If a person is urgently brought to the clinic but does not require hospitalization, the coordinators will provide social support to them if necessary.
Care for patients over 65 years old
One of the most in-demand services is support for patients over 65 years old upon discharge from the hospital. Social coordinators ensure that elderly city residents have gathered their personal belongings, received their outerwear, check if explanations about the doctor’s recommendations are needed, and, if necessary, contact family members or a social worker.
Since the launch of the service, it has already been used by more than 95,000 elderly Muscovites.
Thanks to the creation of a social service in hospitals, the average duration of hospitalization for social reasons has decreased, and the non-core workload on medical staff has been reduced. If a person is alone and has no one to care for them, specialists help arrange social services at home or a comfortable transfer to a residential social facility.
Already in the hospital, coordinators hand over needy patients into the care of Moscow’s social workers and staff of social institutions, who from that moment begin to take care of them. This makes the discharge process from the hospital for patients over 65 years old as comfortable and safe as possible.
“Moscow’s best practices are also being applied in other regions of Russia. Similar social services have been organized in hospitals in the Khabarovsk Krai, Lipetsk, and Tyumen regions, with their work adapted to local conditions and the needs of the population,” Sergey Sobyanin added.
Source: Mayor of Moscow’s channel on in the messenger “Max”
For the exchange of experience and communication among specialists and heads of regional services, the first interregional conference “The Work of the Social Service in Medical Organizations of the State Healthcare System” was held in 2025. Representatives from more than 50 subjects of the Russian Federation participated in it.
The second interregional conference began on October 20, 2026. Over the course of two days, participants will discuss the development of patient-centered services and the practice of their implementation. Additionally, representatives from the regions will visit medical and social institutions in Moscow to familiarize themselves with the work of the social service in hospitals.
More than 17,000 people have undergone professional care training at the Moscow simulation centerMoscow shares the best medical technologies with the entire country
To find out how the capital has changed over the past years, what initiatives aimed at making city residents’ lives even more comfortable are currently being implemented, and what awaits Moscow and its inhabitants in the near future, you can in the large-scale
special project on the portal mos.ru, dedicated to the development of key sectors of Moscow. Among them are transport, industry, healthcare, education, sports, and construction. On the project page “Social support and employment” one can learn about opportunities for city residents in need of support. The capital provides comprehensive assistance to families facing difficult life situations, as well as to people with disabilities and participants in the special military operation. Regular exercise sessions and yoga, lectures, and other events are held at Moscow longevity centers. In addition, the city employment service offers retraining and the chance to acquire a new in-demand profession.
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