RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Completeness of cause of injury coding in healthcare administrative databases in the United States, 2001
JF Injury Prevention
JO Inj Prev
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 199
OP 201
DO 10.1136/ip.2005.010512
VO 12
IS 3
A1 J H Coben
A1 C A Steiner
A1 M Barrett
A1 C T Merrill
A1 D Adamson
YR 2006
UL http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/12/3/199.abstract
AB Objectives: To determine the completeness of external cause of injury coding (E-coding) within healthcare administrative databases in the United States and to identify factors that contribute to variations in E-code reporting across states. Design: Cross sectional analysis of the 2001 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), including 33 State Inpatient Databases (SID), a Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), and nine State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD). To assess state reporting practices, structured telephone interviews were conducted with the data organizations that participate in HCUP. Results: The percent of injury records with an injury E-code was 86% in HCUP’s nationally representative database, the NIS. For the 33 states represented in the SID, completeness averaged 87%, with more than half of the states reporting E-codes on at least 90% of injuries. In the nine states also represented in the SEDD, completeness averaged 93%. Twenty two states had mandates for E-code reporting, but only eight had provisions for enforcing the mandates. These eight states had the highest rates of E-code completeness. Conclusions: E-code reporting in administrative databases is relatively complete, but there is significant variation in completeness across the states. States with mandates for the collection of E-codes and with a mechanism to enforce those mandates had the highest rates of E-code reporting. Nine statewide ED data systems demonstrate consistently high E-coding completeness.