As part of Hamilton Health Sciences’ (HHS) commitment to advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) organizationally, we are beginning to collect patient demographic data through a new initiative called CARE data, which stands for Collecting Accurate and Robust Equity data. This is one of the deliverables identified in HHS’ 2023-28 EDI Plan.
Collecting CARE data will help us:
- Better understand the needs of diverse patient populations
- Identify and address inequities among patient populations
- Improve our capacity to offer culturally-informed care, and
- Create evaluation methods to measure our progress.
CARE data is part of a patient’s health information record, which is confidential and only accessible to health care professionals and hospital staff within the patient’s circle of care. It will be treated with the same level of protection as any other personal health information.
We are piloting the collection of CARE data at HHS’ Boris Clinic and Ron Joyce Children’s Health Centre beginning in October 2023 before rolling it out to all other hospital areas.
During the pilot, patients will be asked to identify their race, ethnicity and preferred language. Answering CARE data questions is completely optional, and patients can choose not answer any or all of the questions. Choosing not to answer will not impact someone’s care at HHS.
Patients can also answer CARE data questions using the MyChart app, which is a personalized, secure online tool that allows patients to view and update their hospital health information. More information about MyChart is available on our website.
For more information about CARE data, check out the answers to our CARE Data frequently asked questions.