The 2022 Lown Institute Hospitals Index racial inclusivity metric measures how well more than 2,800 US hospitals serve people of color in their surrounding community. To create this metric, we used Medicare claims and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey from 2020.

Each hospital’s racial inclusivity score reflects how well the demographics of the hospital’s “community area” (containing people who the hospital could serve) compare to the demographics of the patient population (who the hospital does serve). The community area is determined using the zip codes from which a hospital’s Medicare patients come and includes a travel time adjustment.

We used Census data to determine the proportions of the following racial/ethnic groups in both the hospital patient zip codes and and community area zip codes in the 65+ population: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, Other, Two or more races, and White (not Hispanic or Latino). Demographics from zip codes closer to the hospital were weighted more heavily than zip codes farther away. Hospitals received higher scores if they had higher patient counts from zip codes with greater proportions of non-white patients compared to their community area. Hospitals with racially homogenous community areas were not given a ranking for racial inclusivity.