Firoozeh Molaparast Vali, PhD, Research Department, New Jersey Hospital Association - HRET, 760 Alexander Road, Princeton, NJ 08543, 609-275-4146, fvali@njha.com

Given the dramatic increase in minority/immigrant populations of New Jersey and the substantiated disparities in healthcare access, service utilization and health outcomes, it is critical that hospitals accurately reflect the populations they serve. The reliability of race and ethnicity fields of hospital discharge data has become a greater concern as the data is used by the state to determine the degree to which providers are serving minorities in their communities and actively reducing the disparities in service utilization of ethnic/racial groups. This study examined the distribution of race and ethnicity for all NJ hospital inpatients from 1995-2002, using UB-92 discharge data (MIDS/NJDDCS). Data was analyzed across time, specifically looking at any significant change from 1995-2002. To further validate the findings, distribution of patients’ race/ethnicity for state and counties was compared with the populations’ racial/ethnic composition, using Census data. In addition, separate analyses were performed for each individual acute care hospital, looking at the distribution of its patients’ reported race/ethnicity and comparing them with the populations of the geographic areas each hospital is serving, mainly its county and municipality. For each hospital, the patients’ reported race/ethnicity was compared over time and hospitals with problems and significant fluctuations in major racial/ethnic categories were identified. The findings showed a wide variation among hospitals, suggesting either a utilization issue or significant over-reporting or underreporting of certain racial/ethnic categories due to inconsistency and quality issues in hospitals’ practice for collecting/coding/reporting these data. Currently developing educational tools and staff training programs to support hospital improvement efforts.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participants will be able to

• Describe the uniform hospital discharge data set (UB-9
• and its major fields.
• Identify the ways race and ethnicity fields are being used in identifying disparities in healthcare.
• Learn about the importance of accurately collecting and reliably reporting race and ethnicity data and implications of flaws in these data fields.
• Understand the variation among NJ hospitals in their practice of coding and reporting race and ethnicity data over time, 1995-2002.
• Identify the gap between hospital discharges and population Census data as it relates to the distribution of race and ethnicity for patients and for general populations in an area.
• Learn about the type of barriers and issues that lead to the observed variations and inconsistencies.
• Discuss the creation of a training curriculum and implementation of educational programs and resources to support hospital data improvement efforts.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.