Accuracy of computerized outpatient diagnoses in a Veterans Affairs general medicine clinic.
BACKGROUND
Electronically available data, both administrative, such as outpatient encounter diagnostic data, and clinical, such as problem lists, are being used increasingly for outcome and quality assessment, risk adjustment, and clinical reminder systems.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the accuracy of outpatient primary care diagnostic information recorded in administrative and clinical files in a Veterans Affairs VISTA (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) database compared with medical chart notes.


METHODS
Cross-sectional medical chart review of 148 patients attending a general medicine clinic at a university-affiliated Veterans Affairs hospital for 9 diagnoses relevant to the choice of drug therapy for hypertension.


METHODS
An administrative file of encounter diagnoses, for a 2-year period, and a clinical file of the problem list maintained by the clinician were the sources of electronic diagnoses. We compared these sources with diagnoses abstracted by medical chart review. We estimated the sensitivity and specificity of each electronic data source for detecting medical chart note diagnoses.


RESULTS
The sensitivity for 8 of the 9 study diagnoses was greater than 80% in the administrative file and 49% in the clinical problem list. The specificity was good for the administrative file (91% to 100%) and even better for the clinical file (98% to 100%).


CONCLUSIONS
Outpatient encounter diagnoses relevant to hypertension recorded as electronic data had high specificity, and some codes had high sensitivity when collected over multiple visits. The administrative file was more sensitive but less specific than the clinical file. Administrative vs clinical files can be selected to minimize either the false-negative or the false-positive designations, respectively, as dictated by the needs of the quality assessment review.
Szeto
Herbert C
HC
Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, CA 94304, USA.
Coleman
Robert K
RK
Gholami
Parisa
P
Hoffman
Brian B
BB
Goldstein
Mary K
MK
D002140:California; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000145:classification; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000592:standards; D006787:Hospitals, Veterans / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D006949:Hyperlipidemias / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D006973:Hypertension / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000145:classification / Q000592:standards*; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs