Assessing race and ethnicity data quality across cancer registries and EMRs in two hospitals

Abstract

Background Measurement of patient race/ethnicity in electronic health records is mandated and important for tracking health disparities. Objective Characterize the quality of race/ethnicity data collection efforts. Methods For all cancer patients diagnosed (2007-2010) at two hospitals, we extracted demographic data from five sources: 1) a university hospi- tal cancer registry, 2) a university electronic medical record (EMR), 3) a community hospital cancer registry, 4) a community EMR, and 5) a joint clinical research registry. The patients whose data we examined (N = 17 834) contributed 41 025 entries (range: 2-5 per patient across sources), and the source comparisons generated 1-10 unique pairs per patient. We used generalized estimating equations, chi-squares tests, and kappas estimates to assess data availability and agreement. Results Compared to sex and insurance status, race/ethnicity information was significantly less likely to be available (x2 >8043, P 10 589, P