Community of Practice #3:
“Collecting and Using Patient Demographic Data to Create Equitable Health Care Systems”
This Community of Practice will focus on the collection and use of patient demographic data in the context of eliminating health care disparities. Members of the Community of Practice will explore how data on patient characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender, language, and literacy can be used to ensure equitable care for all patients. Discussion topics may include:
a) National efforts to standardize patient demographic data requirements
b) Categories used to reflect patient characteristics
c) Staffing challenges related to improving patient demographic data collection processes
d) Quality metrics to identify equitable health care practices
e) Using patient demographic data to properly design and allocate services
f) Health IT challenges and opportunities related improving data collection
g) Mechanisms and platforms used to tie patient demographic data to quality data
h) Communication strategies to inform hospital system staff and patients about improved patient demographic data
i) Quality improvement approaches to eliminate identified health care disparities
This Community of Practice started in September 2009 with 13 participants from around the country and the UK, and will meet for 10 months. The group will produce a public resource of information collected and discussed during meetings -- we will post a link here when the resource is available.