Central Distributor SID: Description of Data Elements

LEVELCARE - Level of patient care, as received from source

Documentation Sections:

General Notes

Uniform Values

State Specific Notes

General Notes

The level of patient care (LEVELCARE) is retained as provided by the data source. The original values are not recorded unto uniform HCUP values and are source-specific.

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Uniform Values

Variable Description Value Value Description LEVELCARE Level of patient care, as received from source n(a) State specific coding - See the "State Specific Notes" section for details

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State Specific Notes

California Beginning in 2006, the variable LEVELCARE was renamed HOSPITALUNIT. Prior to 1998, the variable LEVELCARE was not included in the HCUP databases. Information on the level of care was contained in the first digit of the California hospital identifier (DSHOSPID). The values of LEVELCARE are defined as follows: 0= Type of unit unknown 1= General acute care 2= Not a valid code 3= Skilled nursing and intermediate care (long term care) 4= Psychiatric care 5= Alcohol/chemical dependency recovery treatment 6= Acute physical medicine rehabilitation care. California hospitals were required to assign type of care codes to individual records for certain discharges. These discharges included: general acute care (value = 1), skilled nursing and intermediate care (value = 3), and rehabilitation care (value = 6). For discharges from facilities licensed as psychiatric care (value = 4) or alcohol/chemical dependency recovery treatment (value = 5), California assigns the type of care code to all discharges from the facility.

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