External cause-of-injury coding in hospital discharge data--United States, 1992

Accurate and reliable data regarding the external causes of injury (e.g., motor-vehicle crashes and assaults) are critical for planning, implementing, and evaluating injury-control programs (1). In the United States, approximately 25% of the total population is injured annually (2), and nonfatal injuries account for one of every 6 hospital days and 10% of all hospital discharges (3). Although hospital discharge data (HDD) are an important source of information for severe nonfatal injuries (4), external causes of injury have not been routinely reported in HDD, limiting the usefulness of these data for injury surveillance. This report summarizes recent efforts to improve the uniform reporting of external causes of injury in HDD by the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) and the National Uniform Billing Committee (NUBC).