Improving Race and Ethnicity Data Collection: An Intake Worker Training Tool

The NJ Office of Minority and Multicultural Health commissioned Rutgers Center for State Health Policy (CSHP) to evaluate racial and ethnic data collected and used by health care providers. This report describes the results of the second phase of that project, the goal of which was to create a flexible intervention tool. CSHP staff reviewed the literature on current racial data collection practices before developing, testing, and evaluating a training tool that would help hospital intake workers collect race and ethnicity data efficiently and accurately. The intervention tool that they developed was tested among English-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and bilingual intake workers, as well as Spanish-speaking patients, in focus groups. Group participants provided their opinions about how well the tool worked and recommendations for change. Findings from phase two suggest that the intervention tool can clarify the importance of collecting race/ethnicity data, improve communication between patients and intake workers, can lead to better data quality, and will lay a foundation for more targeted program interventions that improve the health of vulnerable populations. Based on the comments received from the focus group, CSHP staff offered several recommendations on organizing and utilizing the tool as well as next steps for future research and implementation.