Analyses of hospital administrative data that use diagnosis codes overestimate the cases of acute pancreatitis.

ABSTRACT:

Background & aims

Although widely used, little information exists on the validity of using hospital administrative data to code acute pancreatitis (AP). We sought to determine if discharge diagnosis codes accurately identify patients whose clinical course met the standard for AP diagnosis.

Methods

We analyzed data from 401 unique patients admitted through the emergency department who received a primary inpatient discharge diagnosis of AP at 2 University of Pittsburgh Medical Center hospitals in the years 2000, 2002, and 2005. Each patient was matched with a control patient who was admitted with abdominal pain and then discharged without a diagnosis of AP. Patients were matched based on demographics, testing for serum levels of pancreatic enzymes, year of visit to the emergen

SUBMITTER: Saligram S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3662547 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature