Manitoba to collect self-declared, race-based hospital patient data – Winnipeg

Manitoba is set to begin collecting race-based patient data in a push for more equitable health care.

Patients at hospitals will be asked about their race, ethnicity and Indigenous identity during the registration process at hospitals, and the information will be collected by Shared Health and other health service organizations.

Collection of the self-declared data, which patients can decline if they choose, will begin on May 11.

It’s part of an initiative being led by Dr. Marcia Anderson of Ongomizzwin, the Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba.

“We saw during COVID-19 how powerful good data was to inform planning that met the needs of the population through better informed vaccine eligibility, and vaccine and testing sites in trusted places in communities,” Anderson said in a release from the U of M and the province Wednesday.

“Collecting racial, ethnic and Indigenous identifiers means we will be able to look at broader health care quality measures and build on the COVID-19 data governance and engagement processes to improve how the health care system serves Black, Indigenous and diverse ethnic or racial communities.”

According to Shared Health, Manitoba is the first province in Canada to begin collecting self-declared, race-based patient data.

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