Central Distributor SID: Description of Data Elements

DDATE - Discharge date

Documentation Sections:

General Notes

Uniform Values

State Specific Notes

General Notes

Discharge date (DDATE) is assigned a valid nonmissing date, with the following exceptions: If a discharge date is supplied by the data source, but one or more of the components of the discharge date (year, month, day) is Blank or a documented missing value, then DDATE = missing (.). - or - Nonnumeric or out of range (year NE 00-99, month NE 1-12, day NE 1-31), DDATE = invalid (.A). If the discharge day is inconsistent with the month (e.g., February 30), then DDATE = invalid (.A). If the data source does not provide the discharge date, then beginning in the 1998 data, DDATE is not present on the HCUP files. In the 1988-1997 data, DDATE is retained on the HCUP files and is set to unavailable from source (.B). To ensure the confidentiality of patients on the HCUP Central Distributor files, full dates are not released. Beginning in the 1998 data, DDATE is replaced by discharge month (DMONTH) and discharge year (YEAR). In databases before 1998, the day portion of the date stored in DDATE is overwritten with "01" during the creation of the Distributor files. The month and year portion of the date remains unchanged. HCUP data elements that are calculated from DDATE are computed before DDATE is masked.

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Uniform Values

Variable Description Value Value Description DDATE Discharge date YYMMDD Date of Discharge . Missing .A Invalid .B Unavailable from source (coded in 1988-1997 data only)

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State Specific Notes

Colorado Beginning in 1997, Colorado provided the discharge date (DDATE) with a four-digit year. In prior years, only a two-digit year was available.

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