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Reducing Disparities
In March of 2009, the Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation, Oregon Office of Health Policy and Research, Oregon Safety Net Advisory Council and Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems convened a meeting to develop a voluntary state standard for collecting race, ethnicity, and primary language data. Participants included consumer groups, health plans, provider groups, and state agencies. The participants agreed on the following goal:
Collecting patient information about race, ethnicity and language through self-report from the patient by a well-trained staff in a practical, standardized, valid, reliable and culturally appropriate and sensitive format is critical to eliminate disparities and achieve high quality health care for all.
Participants discussed how to implement this goal. For those who are able, collecting data at the granular level using a detailed list of entries for race and ethnicity specific to Oregon is preferable to using the Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research (OHPR) broad race and ethnicity categories. Collecting detailed data increases the opportunity for consistency and accuracy, and fosters dialogue. However, it is also important to aggregate granular data into the OHPR race and ethnicity categories to facilitate community-wide data aggregation and national comparison, and complete state and/or federal regulation reporting requirements.
The Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation worked with many groups in Oregon to draft a voluntary standard for collecting race and ethnicity data. The initiative encourages use of the voluntary standard and is very interested in receiving feedback on the report and how the voluntary standard is implemented. To view the report, click here.
Reducing Disparities
In March of 2009, the Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation, Oregon Office of Health Policy and Research, Oregon Safety Net Advisory Council and Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems convened a meeting to develop a voluntary state standard for collecting race, ethnicity, and primary language data. Participants included consumer groups, health plans, provider groups, and state agencies. The participants agreed on the following goal:
Collecting patient information about race, ethnicity and language through self-report from the patient by a well-trained staff in a practical, standardized, valid, reliable and culturally appropriate and sensitive format is critical to eliminate disparities and achieve high quality health care for all.
Participants discussed how to implement this goal. For those who are able, collecting data at the granular level using a detailed list of entries for race and ethnicity specific to Oregon is preferable to using the Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research (OHPR) broad race and ethnicity categories. Collecting detailed data increases the opportunity for consistency and accuracy, and fosters dialogue. However, it is also important to aggregate granular data into the OHPR race and ethnicity categories to facilitate community-wide data aggregation and national comparison, and complete state and/or federal regulation reporting requirements.
The Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation worked with many groups in Oregon to draft a voluntary standard for collecting race and ethnicity data. The initiative encourages use of the voluntary standard and is very interested in receiving feedback on the report and how the voluntary standard is implemented. To view the report, click here.