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DPH outlines SOGI data initiative and EPIC integration, secures $1.7 million in PRIME funds
Summary
DPH staff described training, communication and EPIC integration for sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data collection, reporting 19,202 patients with SOGI data complete as of May and $1.7 million secured through PRIME pay-for-performance; department aims for ~80% completeness by year end.
Ashley Scarborough, primary care coordinator for the Department of Public Health, presented the department's initiative to expand collection of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data across DPH clinical sites and to use EPIC to record chosen name and pronouns.
Scarborough said the initiative is "more than data collection," emphasizing training (a train-the-trainer model, a three-hour in-person module, shorter modules and online curriculum), a communications strategy that tells staff to ask all patients while informing patients they may decline, and patient‑experience improvements such as printing chosen names on wristbands. She noted the department met PRIME pay-for-performance targets that secured $1.7 million for the SOGI data work.
Using legacy data and early EPIC records, staff reported a 33.24 percent increase this year and that 19,202 patients in the primary care population had SOGI data complete as of May. Scarborough said roughly 50 percent of the DPH population now have SOGI data complete and set an 80 percent target for the end of the fiscal year as Epic adoption expands.
Commissioners asked about workflows (front-office staff to collect fields), whether Epic's CareEverywhere could permit cross-system data sharing, and how behavioral health contractors using other systems (Avatar) are being supported; Scarborough said Avatar fields were added for behavioral-health contractors and that a broader citywide effort to map SOGI data across systems is underway.
Commissioners praised the work and asked DPH to continue integrating contractor data and to report progress as Epic adoption spreads.
