Did We Have an Impact? Changes in Racial and Ethnic Composition of Patient Populations Following Implementation of a Pilot Program.

High-quality data are necessary to eliminate health disparities, and are necessary in cancer prevention and control. A pilot project to improve the collection of race and ethnicity data was undertaken. The approach included train-the-trainer and staff training, and racial and ethnic categories were expanded to include "granular ethnicity" or ancestry terms in the patient registration system at five acute care hospitals in Rhode Island.

Conflicting race/ethnicity reports: lessons for improvement in data quality.

Objective: To learn the frequency of conflicting race/ethnicity reports, to examine patterns of conflicting reports, and to identify possible avenues for data quality improvement.

Methods: As part of the Data Improvement Project on Patient Ethnicity and Race (DIPPER), an analysis of conflicting race/ethnicity reports for cancer cases was conducted. Using matched hospital discharge data and central cancer registry data from 2009, the race/ethnicity of patients in the 2 datasets were compared.

Report on Data Improvement Project on Patient Ethnicity and Race (DIPPER): pilot design and proposed voluntary standard.

The Hospital Association of Rhode Island, in conjunction with the Rhode Island Cancer Registry, received funding for a special project to improve the validity and reliability of race and ethnicity data in hospital inpatient records. In the past year, five hospitals participated in a pilot to improve race/ethnicity data collection. This paper provides an overview of the design and initial implementation of the pilot, and reports on early feedback.

The challenges of abstracting reliable information on patient race and ethnicity: initial observations from the Data Improvement Project on Patient Ethnicity and Race (DIPPER).

The Hospital Association of Rhode Island, in conjunction with the Rhode Island Cancer Registry, received funding for a special project to improve the validity and reliability of race and ethnicity data in hospital inpatient records. One aspect of the project is to examine how hospital cancer registrars (CRs) locate, interpret, and code patient race and ethnicity. In the present report, we discuss initial findings on this topic, gleaned from discussions with registrars at 11 acute care hospitals.