Health equity and race and ethnicity data

Over the past few decades, the United States has become an increasingly multicultural country.1 As the nation’s demographics change, some of the greatest challenges many health care organizations experience in providing quality health care services are knowing the patient populations they serve, identifying their patients’ needs and preferences, and implementing and monitoring improvements in health and health care.2 The collection of race and ethnicity data is considered crucial to providing quality health care for everyone. (author abstract)