Validation of a centrally maintained computerized hospital database: comparison with operating room logbooks

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Medical Informatics
• Surgical Outcomes

Background:

• Variations in surgical procedure use across populations are of significant interest.
• Routinely collected data in central computer systems are often used to study these variations.
• Assessing the validity of these databases is crucial for reliable research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present and evaluate a method for validating a central health database (Kupat Holim).
• To assess the database's sensitivity and positive predictive value for surgical procedures.
• To determine the reliability of routinely collected health data for surgical procedure research.

Main Methods:

• Compared data from Kupat Holim's computerized database against operating room logbooks and in-patient medical records.
• Validated data for three surgical procedures: cholecystectomy, prostatectomy, and hysterectomy.
• Conducted the validation across multiple hospitals in Israel.

Main Results:

• The computerized database demonstrated high sensitivity, ranging from 90% to 98%.
• Positive predictive values were also high, varying between 96% and 99%.
• The findings indicate strong reliability of the central database for tracking surgical procedures.

Conclusions:

• The centrally maintained computerized database is a reliable source for surgical procedure data.
• Complementary data sources, like operating room logbooks, are recommended for enhanced accuracy when needed.
• The study supports the use of routinely collected data for analyzing surgical procedure variations.