A recent study from three children’s hospitals has found that patient information relating to racial and ethnic designations is significantly inaccurate.
Mott Children’s, Helen DeVos, and the Children’s Hospital of Michigan participated in a study led by University of Michigan’s Dr. Gary Freed to identify and address racial and ethnic inequities in health care.
Dr. Freed found that between 22 and 59% of electronic medical records have inaccurate information about race and ethnicity. He says these errors may have impacted certain populations being either over or underrepresented health care.
“If we’re not accurately describing certain populations, any analyses that we’re doing about those populations may be wrong.”
Dr. Freed hopes that his pioneering work with this study encourages other healthcare systems to conduct their own studies to identify and address disparities in their racial/ethnic patient records.
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