Source Files

The Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA) provides emergency department (ED) records to HCUP in one outpatient file.

Beginning in data year 2014, MHA creates four separate indicator flags that identify ambulatory surgery, imaging services, ED visits, and observation services. Prior to 2014, MHA created three flags, excluding the observation services flag.

• Bill Type must be 13x, 83x or 85x
• Bill Type must be xx1, xx4, xx5 or xx7
• and Must have either a revenue code of 0450 through 0459 or a CPT code of 99281 through 99288
• and Principal Diagnosis Code AHRQ CCS Chapter>= 1 and <= 17
• If any revenue code = 0456, ER flag is set to false

Prior to 2012, MHA selected ED records from their outpatient files using the following criteria:

• Revenue Code in the range "0450" to "0459" or
• CPT procedure code in the range "99281" to "99288" or
• Any ICD-9-CM diagnosis code in the range "800" to "995" or
• Any external cause of injury codes.

The assignment of an ambulatory surgery and ED visit record is hierarchical. Specifically, if the Partner-defined ED flag is true, the ambulatory surgery flag is set to false. However, if an ED record also had observation and/or imaging services, all three outpatient services will be identified on the record by the respective indicator flags.

Selection of Records for Inclusion in the SEDD

MHA provides HCUP with one outpatient file in which ED records are included with records for other nonemergent outpatient services. All records identified by MHA as ED are included in the SEDD (HCUP data element STATE_ED=1 based on the ED indicator flag).

Additionally, any other records with evidence of ED services that are flagged by the variable HCUP_ED (i.e., HCUP_ED>0) during HCUP processing are included in the SEDD. If a record in the SASD also has evidence of ED services based on the HCUP criteria (HCUP data element HCUP_ED not equal to 0), then the SASD record is also included in the SEDD. These records will have the same value for the HCUP data element KEY.

Types of Facilities Included in the Files Provided to HCUP by the Partner

MHA provides HCUP with ED data from all member hospital-owned EDs in the State.

A comparison of the number of hospitals included in the SEDD and the number of hospitals reported in the AHA Annual Survey is available starting in data year 2014.

Hospital-owned EDs do not always report data for a full calendar year. Some open or close during the year; others have technical problems that prevent them from reporting data for all months in a year.

Exclusion of Records During HCUP Data Processing

Beginning in 2017, records with a discharge disposition of "still a patient" are retained in the HCUP SEDD. Prior to 2017, these records were excluded. Beginning in 2010, records with a designation of "admitted as an inpatient" are retained in the SEDD, even though this rarely occurs. Prior to 2010, records with a designation of "admitted as an inpatient" were excluded from the files.