Question

You are the tumor registrar of the county hospital and work under the HIM department. Although it is a small hospital of only 150 beds, it offers general medical and surgical inpatient care, a radiation treatment center, emergency care, and a surgical center for outpatient procedures. Services include medicine, surgery, gynecology, orthopedics, neurology, urology and oncology with ancillary service departments supporting diagnostic clinical care and treatment to patients. The HIM department is responsible for usual services to ensure that complete, timely, and accurate records are maintained, as well as for oversight of the hospital Cancer Registry Program. The chief operations officer has asked you to complete a demographic origin list of every identifiable reportable bladder and colon cancer case for the past six months for strategic planning of hospital services.

What are your sources for obtaining the information to compile a list.

Answer 1

Depending on the measure, data can be collected from different sources, including medical records, patient surveys, and administrative databases used to pay bills or to manage care.
Administrative data sources is gathered from claims, encounter, enrollment, and providers systems. Common data elements include type of service, number of units (e.g., days of service), diagnosis and procedure codes for clinical services, location of service, and amount billed and amount reimbursed. The main use of this data source is that it is available electronically.
Patients medical records are the other source available for data collection.The advent of electronic medical records has increased the accessibility of patients’ files. Wider use of electronic medical record systems is expected to improve the ease and cost of using this information for quality measurement and reporting.
Patients survey can be also used for obtaining information to compile information to complete a demographic origin list of every identifiable , reportable bladder and colon cancer cases.
Disease registries are clinical information systems that track a narrow range of key data for certain chronic conditions such as Alzheimer's Disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and asthma. Registries often provide critical information for managing patient conditions.
Use of high standard data will facilitate for strategic planning of hospital services.
Summary
Several sources for obtaining the information to compile a list in hospital for strategic planning of hospital services.