Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Analyzing Race, Ethnicity and Language Data to Improve Quality of Care

University of Mississippi Medical Center
Jackson, MS
623 Beds

The Problem
University of Mississippi Medical Center wanted to improve the way it collected race, ethnicity and language (REAL) data to better understand the demographics of the communities that the medical center served. In addition, University of Mississippi Medical Center wanted to use those data to analyze and identify opportunities to improve clinical outcomes for its diverse patient communities.

The Solution
University of Mississippi Medical Center created a Healthcare Disparities Council with 40 members, including interpreters, ad¬ministrators, nurses, physicians and members of the registration staff. The council reports to the hospital leadership. Four subgroups support the council’s efforts and focus on health literacy, patient access and experience of care, education and awareness, and quality for diverse populations. The council has focused its efforts on several performance improvement initiatives.

One success story has been University of Mississippi Medical Center’s involvement in Expecting Success: Excellence in Cardiac Care, a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation aimed at improving quality of cardiac care for African-American and Hispanic patients by improving care for all patients. During the program, University of Mississippi Medical Center adopted standardized protocols to collect REAL data. In addition, staff was trained to interview patients to ask for this information. University of Mississippi Medical Center used the REAL data to provide monthly reports on care performance measures, stratified by patient race, ethnicity and primary language. The medical center also tracked core measures of care for patients who had a heart attack or heart failure. Through this effort, University of Mississippi Medical Center was able to demonstrate how simple, standard collection methods of REAL data can help improve overall patient quality.

The Result
Participating in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project yielded several positive outcomes for University of Mississippi Medical Center. First, the num¬ber of patients receiving all core measures of care for heart attack and heart failure increased from 74 percent to 82 percent in two years. University of Mississippi Medical Center also realized that heart attack patients need help to better control and self-manage their disease post-hospitalization. As a result, the medical center established an outpatient heart failure management clinic led by a nurse practitioner who helps patients manage their disease after leaving the hospital.

The Healthcare Disparities Quality Subcommittee supporting the Healthcare Disparities Council has created an equity scorecard that specifically monitors performance in cardiac care. The scorecards are updated and reviewed quarterly to identify areas for improvement in caring for diverse populations.

Contact Information
Mary Mixon
mmixon@umc.edu

This case study was originally featured in the HPOE guide: "Eliminating Health Disparities: Implementing the National Call to Action Using Lessons Learned," published February, 2012.