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Are national hospital data adequate for coding injury severity?
R Blackhall1, D Christie, D Gill
1Wellington School of Medicine.
The New Zealand Medical Journal
|October 28, 1987
Summary
Accurate Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) scores are difficult to generate from National Health Statistics Centre (NHSC) data. Improving data collection and coding is recommended for better trauma severity assessment.
Area of Science:
- Trauma research
- Health informatics
- Injury surveillance
Background:
- Hospital discharge data is a valuable resource for public health surveillance.
- Accurate injury severity scoring is crucial for trauma outcome analysis and research.
- The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) is a standard tool for injury severity assessment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the feasibility of generating accurate Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) scores from National Health Statistics Centre (NHSC) hospital discharge data.
- To assess the agreement between AIS scores derived from NHSC data and those assigned in dedicated trauma studies.
Main Methods:
- Linking data from two New Zealand trauma studies to NHSC computer files.
- Assigning AIS scores to injuries identified in the linked NHSC data.
- Comparing AIS scores generated from NHSC data with original trauma study scores.
Main Results:
- Sixty-five percent of linked injuries were scorable using NHSC data.
- A 54% agreement was found between AIS scores from NHSC data and trauma studies.
- Agreement varied by body area, injury victim type (single vs. multiple), and injury severity.
Conclusions:
- Current NHSC data collection and coding practices limit the accurate generation of AIS scores.
- Revisions to data collection, coding, and medical personnel education are recommended to improve AIS scoring from hospital discharge data.
- Enhanced data capture can improve trauma injury surveillance and analysis.