Administrative data based patient safety research: a critical review.
Administrative data are readily available, inexpensive, computer readable, and cover large populations. Despite coding irregularities and limited clinical details, administrative data supplemented by tools such as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) patient safety indicators (PSIs) could serve as a screen for potential patient safety problems that merit further investigation, offer valuable insights into adverse impacts and risks of medical errors and, to some extent, provide benchmarks for tracking progress in patient safety efforts at local, state, or national levels.
Zhan
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Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, MD 20852, USA. czhan@ahrq.gov
Miller
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MR
D003625:Data Collection; D016208:Databases, Factual; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020379:Risk Adjustment; D017751:Safety Management; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology