Race and Ethnicity Data Collection

MHA previously notified its members about a series of regional training sessions that have been scheduled to assist hospitals comply with new state regulations regarding the collection of patients' race and ethnicity data. In addition to the sessions, several operational and outreach materials have been created to assist hospitals with communicating the new changes to their patients and clinical staff.

A statewide workgroup of hospitals, state and local agencies, and local advocacy groups have met to develop these materials to assist hospitals comply with the new requirements. The goal is to ensure that all hospitals collect and report data in a consistent and uniform manner to ensure that information can be aggregated appropriately. Specifically, the group has developed the following materials:

1. A set of patient outreach materials to assist registration, clinical, and other hospital staff convey the reason and importance of collecting race and ethnicity demographic information from hospital patients. The materials include:

a one-page patient flyer that may be handed out or posted in the hospital to inform patients about the upcoming data collection process, and
a more detailed patient “frequently asked question” (FAQ) document that hospitals may provide patients should they have further questions about the purpose and intended use of the demographic data being collected. (The FAQ document is set up as a bi-fold pamphlet for easy distribution.)

2. A one-page provider FAQ document that registration staff may use to inform internal clinical staff about the data collection process to ensure that the provider community is aware why their patients are being asked detailed race and ethnicity demographic information.

3. Three operational tools to assist hospitals collect and report the required information in a consistent and uniform manner. These documents include:

an updated IT strategies document outlining how to capture and report the specific data requirements to ensure that all hospitals report consistently;
a set of registration scripts (in PowerPoint format that is intended to be printed out as a desk reference) that staff may use when they meet with and talk to patient about gathering the data; and
a comprehensive list of languages used within Massachusetts that we urge all hospitals to include within their system to again ensure that any report of languages used is based on the same list.

While we strongly urge all hospitals to use the materials to ensure a consistent message for patients and consistent operational practices, feel free to adapt them or include additional information in any of the documents to suit your specific patient population. The patient outreach materials are being posted with both a formatted design (pictures and mutli-colors) and also as plain text. Both of the patient outreach materials also include a text box to allow hospitals to insert their logos or to include contact information for patients to call should they have further questions. The provider FAQ and operational tools are all provided as plain text and hospitals are free to use the materials in the manner most appropriate.

Please note that all materials are currently posted in English only; MHA is working on translating the outreach materials into 10 different languages as determined by the statewide workgroup [The language are Arabic, Cape Verdean, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Haitian Creole, Khmer, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese.]

Should you have any questions about the materials on the website, please contact Anuj Goel, Esq. at (781) 262-6034 or agoel@mhalink.org.

Race and Ethnicity Data Collection

Enclosures

Program Materials

Patient FAQ

Patient FAQ (plain text)

Patient Flyer

Patient Flyer (plain text)