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 and appropriate 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 began piloting the collection of CARE data at HHS’ Boris Clinic and Ron Joyce Children’s Health Centre in early October 2023, with plans to roll it out to all other hospital areas. The plan to expand this initiative across our sites continues as we take a phased approach.
Patients in the pilot areas will be able to submit their CARE data via e-Check-in or MyChart, HHS’ patient portal. Answering CARE data questions is completely optional and voluntary, and patients can choose not to answer any or all of the questions. Choosing not to answer will not impact someone’s care at HHS.
The MyChart app 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.
As part of our commitment to collect, use and report CARE data equitably, we are developing an approach to Data governance to aligning with the First Nations Principles of OCAP (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession), EGAP (Engagement, Governance, Access, and Protection), and other guidance from communities. As we work on our data governance approach, Indigenous identity, and other identity-based data will not be included in any population-level analyses.
For more information about CARE data, check out the answers to our frequently asked questions.