Hospital Practices in the Collection of Patient Race, Ethnicity, and Language Data: A Statewide Survey, California, 2011

California mandates hospitals to collect and report patient race, ethnicity, and primary spoken language (REL). A lack of specific guidelines and standardized practices on how data should be collected has contributed to inconsistent and incomplete data.

General acute care hospitals in California completed a survey to elucidate practices regarding collection and auditing of patient REL. Nearly all hospitals reported collecting race and/or ethnicity (97%). The majority of hospitals used standardized forms for collection, and 75% audited patient information for completeness. Popular accepted strategies to improve the quality and completeness of REL included collecting data at the first encounter, routine staff training, incorporating REL questions into existing admissions forms, and developing and enforcing hospital policies regarding data collection.

California hospitals are collecting information on patient REL as mandated, but variation in data collection exists. Hospitals endorse many reasonable approaches for standardization, and may benefit from standardized data collection and auditing practices.