title: Cautious use of administrative data for decubitus ulcer outcome reporting.
abstract: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that caution should be exercised when using administrative data, exclusively, to report quality and safety outcomes. Investigators identified hospital-acquired decubitus ulcers using Agency for Health-care Research and Quality (AHRQ) patient safety indicator definitions. As validation of this method, investigators abstracted 123 medical charts of patients identified through AHRQ methodology as having hospital-acquired decubitus ulcers. Abstraction of these cases produced a change in rate from 23.3 decubitus ulcers per 1000 patients, derived through administrative data, to a true rate of 7.9 decubitus ulcers per 1000 patients, a 66% reduction. Investigators found 2 additional flaws (1 internal and 1 methodological) that further decreased the decubitus ulcer rate to 6.14 per 1000, a 74% variance. The results of this study suggest that administrative data, when used alone, are not sufficient in measuring the true rate of hospital-acquired decubitus ulcers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Data Analysis and Measurement, Texas Health Resources, Arlington, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Shea
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Polancich
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Restrepo
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prosser
mesh_terms: D003428:Cross Infection; D003625:Data Collection; D006801:Humans; D009096:Multi-Institutional Systems; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D003668:Pressure Ulcer / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology