Provision of disaggregated race and ethnicity information in hospital visits

Although federal and state policies support collection of detailed race and ethnicity, little research has examined how organizations and patients respond to these requests. New York State encourages hospitals to collect detailed race and ethnic group information for Hispanic, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (NHPI) patients, with more than 70% of hospitals complying. Using New York hospital discharge data from 2016–2022, we found that visit-responses for Asian and NHPI patients were more than 40 percentage points more likely to have detailed race and ethnic group information than patients identified as other races. Hospitals collecting detailed ethnic group information for Asian and NHPI patients were more likely to be larger and more urban, located in counties with less deprivation. This descriptive study suggests that patients will report detailed race and ethnic group information when prompted, and policies encouraging hospitals to record detailed race and ethnic group information may be effective.