Danbury Hospital Scores $50K Grant To Improve Data Collection

DANBURY, CT — Danbury Hospital has been awarded $50,000 from the Connecticut Health Foundation.

The grant is among 24 awarded by the CHF in the fourth quarter of 2022, totaling nearly $1.17 million.

The gifts are meant to enable the grantees to conduct community listening sessions, establish patient advisory boards, and undertake other activities designed to improve how they collect and analyze data on patients’ race, ethnicity, and preferred language ("REL" data). A state law passed in 2021 requires health care providers to collect this data from patients in a standardized way.

Nuvance Health, Danbury Hospital’s parent company, will use the money to develop, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive internal and community education program aimed at collecting accurate REL data that will support interventions to improve health equity across Western Connecticut, according to a news release from CHF.

"As health care providers begin asking about race, ethnicity, and language preference on a more regular basis, it’s important that patients are asked the questions in a way they will feel comfortable answering," said Tiffany Donelson, president and CEO of the Connecticut Health Foundation. "It’s critically important for community members to be part of informing how this data is collected and how it’s used. We’re thrilled that so many health care providers are committed to implementing this new requirement in a thoughtful way."