Grants will Support Hospital, Community Health Center Outreach on Race, Ethnicity, and Language Data

With grants from the Connecticut Health Foundation, seven hospital systems and community health centers will conduct community listening sessions, establish patient advisory boards, and undertake other activities designed to improve how they collect and analyze data on patients’ race, ethnicity, and preferred language.

In announcing the grants, Connecticut Health Foundation pointed out that having accurate data on race, ethnicity, and language preference – known as REL data – is critical to identifying and addressing population-level gaps in care and outcomes. Officials noted that a state law passed in 2021 requires health care providers to collect this data from patients in a standardized way.

To help ensure that this requirement is implemented effectively and that the data is used to identify and address health inequities, the Connecticut Health Foundation convened a group of health care providers, state agencies, community organizations, and others, to work through issues related to data collection, officials indicated.

The grantees are participants in this process, which is being facilitated by the Yale Equity Research and Innovation Center and the Yale Global Health Leadership Initiative.

While collecting data might sound simple, officials indicated that doing it effectively can require staff training to assure that health care workers understand why it’s important to ask about race and ethnicity and how to do so, and making sure that patients understand why they’re being asked and feel comfortable providing the information. Collecting the data can also require changes in electronic records systems and workflow.

“As health care providers begin asking about race, ethnicity, and language preference on a more regular basis, it’s important that patients are asked the questions in a way they will feel comfortable answering,” said Tiffany Donelson, president and CEO of the Connecticut Health Foundation. “It’s critically important for community members to be part of informing how this data is collected and how it’s used. We’re thrilled that so many health care providers are committed to implementing this new requirement in a thoughtful way.”

The grantees are:

Connecticut Children’s Medical Center Foundation, Hartford: $50,000

Connecticut Children’s Medical Center will use this funding to bring together a diverse group of patients and families to provide feedback on how REL data should be collected and how to explain its importance to staff collecting data and patients and families who will be asked for it. The hospital will then use the feedback to develop trainings and materials for staff, patients and families, and the broader community, with materials available in multiple languages.

Danbury Hospital, Danbury: $50,000

Nuvance Health, Danbury Hospital’s parent company, will develop, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive internal and community education program aimed at collecting accurate REL data that will support interventions to improve health equity across Western Connecticut.

Family Centers, Greenwich: $50,000

Family Centers will use this funding to train staff in gathering race, ethnicity, and language data, as well as of the importance of this data and its use, as part of the organization’s move to a new electronic health records system. The funding will also support the development of a patient portal in the new records system to improve the collection of patient-reported REL data.

Griffin Hospital, Derby: $30,000

Griffin Health will host community engagement sessions to learn how people would like to be asked about their REL data, then use the feedback to inform changes to the way patients are asked for this and other demographic information. Funding will also support staff education about the importance of REL data and the purchase of software and tablets to allow patients to self-report their data when they get care.

InterCommunity, East Hartford: $50,000

InterCommunity will use this funding to support revising its current data collection methods and training materials, host community focus groups to help identify ways to improve data collection, and provide cultural humility training to 300 direct care providers and administrative support staff.

Saint Francis PHO Foundation, Hartford: $50,000

SoNE HEALTH, a network of medical practices, will use this funding to deploy staff to examine data collection practices within member practices, train patient registration staff, identify opportunities for better data collection and use, and make improvements.

Yale New Haven Health System, New Haven: $50,000

Yale New Haven Health System plans to engage employees, patients, and community members on how to best implement REL data collection and assure that patients understand how data will be used. The health system also plans to return to community members when data finds disparities, to identify ways to address inequities and co-design goals. This funding will also support the development of culturally and linguistically appropriate communications materials about race, ethnicity, and language data, informed by community member feedback.