Race, ethnicity, and language data is an important part of an individual’s health record. When your organization sends health data to VITL, VITL makes it available to other health care organizations to support patient care and to the Vermont Department of Health for public health initiatives. When the race, ethnicity, and language data you send is complete, standardized, and usable, it is a powerful tool in efforts to advance health equity.
Race, Ethnicity, and Language Data
Data informs health equity advancements
Improving race, ethnicity, and language data quality
Race, ethnicity, and language data quality includes how questions are asked, what answer options are offered, and more. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offers an inventory of resources to support effective collection of standardized demographic and language data.
CDC Inventory of Resources for Standardized Demographic and Language Data Collection
Once the data is collected, VITL can help your organization understand how to deliver complete, usable race, ethnicity, and language data from your electronic health record (EHR) to the Vermont Health Information Exchange, so it can be used to support patient care, inform public health initiatives, and more.
VITL’s Best Practices for Race, Ethnicity, and Language Data Sharing
New VITL reports provide feedback on data quality
Sample race, ethnicity, and language data quality indicator report
VITL, together with the Vermont Department of Health, has developed reports to help VITL data contributors understand the completeness and usability of the race, ethnicity, and language data they submit to VITL and the Vermont Health Information Exchange. If you would like help locating your organization’s report or have questions about its contents, please reach out to support@vitl.net.
Methodology document for the data quality indicator reports
Definitions and calculations used in the race, ethnicity, and language data quality indicator reports
Sample race, ethnicity, and language data quality indicator report
Webinar
VITL and the Vermont Department of Health offered a webinar REL Talk: a Webinar about Race, Ethnicity, and Language Data that introduced the race, ethnicity, and language data (REL) quality indicator reports. This webinar was an opportunity to learn more about how this data is used, about the methodology behind the reports, and about strategies for improving the data your organization submits to VITL. If you missed it, click here to view the webinar.