“Health professionals told us at our February Town Hall meeting that information is a critical tool in combating the health disparities that continue to affect low-income communities and communities of color,” said Phillips, chair of the County Council. “If they know about medical problems that are prevalent in a specific community or ethnic group, they can plan a course of action to combat those problems. The information we’re asking hospitals to collect can literally save lives—but only if it’s available.”

“King County struggles to accurately gauge the degree of health disparities, mainly because data regarding patient demographics does not exist. When we know, from hospital statistics, who is suffering at high rates from chronic, transmissible and preventable diseases, we can best target our public health resources to provide the greatest benefit to the communities that need it most,” said Patterson, chair of the King County Board of Health. “Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that patients who are poor, minorities, or limited English speakers receive the same quality of care as those who are affluent.”

Both Phillips and Patterson have sent letters to Secretary of Health Mary Selecky, asking that the State Department of Health require hospitals to include Race/Ethnicity and primary language in the data collected as part of the Comprehensive Hospital Abstract Reporting System (CHARS).

CHARS was originally developed to monitor hospital charges and set billing rates, but has developed into a health assessment tool representing data on hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and billions of dollars of charges each year. CHARS data is now an essential part of local planning and disease monitoring efforts. A recent decision by the CHARS Recommendation Committee to have hospitals asked for patient race/ethnicity information, prompted the Councilmembers to ask that hospitals also collect data on the patient’s primary language needed for communicating health information between the patient and provider.
When the patient is limited in English proficiency, this information will indicate the language needed for interpreter services.