Understanding health disparities through improving EMS data
Emergent Health Partners and CHRT are working to implement EMS clinician training modules across all six EHP EMS agencies in Michigan. These modules will train clinicians to accurately collect sensitive demographic data pertaining to race, ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation, improving the quality of EMS demographic data and deepening our understanding of community health disparities, particularly for underserved communities.
Understanding the importance of incorporating community voices into this work, the project will convene a paid community advisory group composed of a diverse set of people with lived experience with health care and EMS systems. The group will provide insight on the content of the training modules, how to approach conversations about sensitive demographics with clients, and the feasibility and implementation of the project more broadly.
CHRT will be responsible for convening the community advisory board, implementing clinician training, and analyzing EMS data post-implementation.
Convening the community advisory board
- CHRT will recruit CAB members through EHP’s existing community partners, the Washtenaw Health Initiative (WHI), Community Health Services at Michigan Medicine, and through local community networks, such as senior centers, community centers, and churches.
- CHRT will administer surveys to the board at the 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month mark to collect participant feedback and identify areas of improvement.
Implementing clinician training
- CHRT will collect feedback on two training modules distributed to all EHP clinicians.
- CHRT will administer surveys to EHP clinicians directly after and 3 months after training to assess effectiveness and implementation of the training.
Analyzing EMS data
- CHRT will analyze EMS data at the 3-month and 12-month mark after clinician training to quantify improvements in the quality of demographic EMS data by comparing demographic data in EMS to health system-collected data.