Maximizing Data Capture for Race and Ethnicity of Children Admitted to Critical Care Units.

Abstract

Background: Access to complete patient sociodemographic data in a hospital's electronic health record is important for identifying and understanding health inequities and designing interventions to close health care gaps. Through participation in a national safety collaborative, this team identified many patients in intensive care units (ICUs) for whom sociodemographic data (race and ethnicity) were incomplete or missing.

Objectives: To describe the processes the team used to understand how sociodemographic data were being ascertained for children admitted to hospital ICUs; demonstrate how interprofessional care teams can collaborate to create solutions for vulnerable patients; and provide steps that can be used at other hospitals to decrease missing sociodemographic data and deliver equitable care.

Methods: A plan-do-study-act framework guided this initiative to improve collection of data on the race and ethnicity of ICU patients. Via 4 plan-do-study-act cycles, care vulnerabilities and implemented tests of change were evaluated to achieve the goal of capturing sociodemographic data within 72 hours of patient admission.

Results: A new process was developed for patient experience representatives to collect, enter, and track sociodemographic data accurately. Through education and use of a script, documentation rates reached 80% to 100%.

Conclusions: Overcoming barriers in the electronic health record and creating new processes supported the collection of sociodemographic data for children admitted to ICUs. Engaging and acknowledging the value of interprofessional teams was important in this successful groundwork to help deliver equitable care.