• Murdoch Leeies, Brian Grunau, Nicole Askin, Lula Fesehaye, Jodi Kornelsen, Tamara McColl, Paul Ratana, Jackie Gruber, Haley Hrymak, and Carmen Hrymak.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
• Acad Emerg Med. 2023 Jul 1; 30 (7): 742759742-759.

ObjectivesThe objective was to conduct a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) to identify best practices, benefits, harms, facilitators, and barriers to the routine collection of sociodemographic variables in emergency departments (EDs).MethodsThis work is a systematic review and QES. We conducted a comprehensive search of Medline (Ovid), CINAHL (Ebsco), Cochrane Central (OVID), EMBASE (Ovid), and the multidisciplinary Web of Science Core database using peer-reviewed search strategies, complemented by a gray literature search. We included citations containing perspectives on routine sociodemographic variable collection in EDs and recommendations on definitions or processes of collection or benefits, harms, facilitators, or barriers related to the routine collection of sociodemographic variables in EDs. We conducted this systematic review and QES adhering to the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines. Two reviewers independently selected included studies and extracted data. We conducted a best-fit framework synthesis and paired inductive thematic analysis of the included studies. We generated recommendations based on the QES.ResultsWe included 21 unique reports that enrolled 10,454 patients or respondents in our systematic review and QES. Publication dates of included studies ranged from 2011 to 2021. Included citations were published in Australia, Canada, and the United States. We synthesized 11 benefits, 14 potential harms, 15 barriers, and 19 facilitators and identified 14 best practice recommendations from included citations.ConclusionsHealth systems should routinely collect sociodemographic variables in EDs guided by recommendations that minimize harms and maximize benefits and consider relevant barriers and facilitators. Our recommendations can serve as a guide for the equity-focused reformation of emergency medicine health information systems.© 2022 The Authors. Academic Emergency Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

12 keywords...

hide…