Aim
This project examines what CALD data is collected from patients, how it is collected, and by whom, within Cancer Services at a major tertiary hospital in Victoria. The project investigates any challenges to obtaining complete and accurate data reflective of the CALD population and seeks to assess the relevance of the Australian Bureau of Statistics ‘core’ and ‘standard’ variables to CALD communities.
Methods
A mixed-method approach consisting of: 1) audit of electronic medical records of all outpatients (n=7243) to assess the frequency of missing CALD data; 2) review of existing organisational policies related to CALD data collection; 3) staff survey to identify gaps in resources, knowledge and training relating to CALD data collection methods; and 4) focus groups with CALD communities prevalent in the Austin catchment area (Mandarin, Arabic, Greek), recruited using snowball sampling. The sessions were transcribed, and thematically analysed.
Results
Patients from non-main English speaking countries or with a preferred language other than English were twice as likely to have one or more indeterminate/missing answer in their electronic medical record (p=<0.05). Administrative staff receive no training in CALD data collection. Variables such as ‘year of arrival in Australia’, ‘ethnicity’, and ‘culture’, whilst not included in the ABS Minimum Standards, were selected by communities as important aspects of CALD identify that should be captured by health service data.
Conclusion
This case study of CALD data collection can be replicated at other hospitals and health care settings. Better resources and training for staff could improve level of completeness of patient data. Data collections should consider the inclusion of ABS non-core variables, especially ‘ethnicity’, ‘culture’, ‘year of arrival in Australia’, to better capture types of diversity beyond language and country of birth. Findings can inform service delivery planning to create a more inclusive and consistent CALD data collection framework.