Recorded Categories of Non-Principal Diagnoses in Victorian Public Hospital Transient Ischaemic Attack and Stroke Admissions

Abstract

Information about the number and types of non-principal diagnoses (NPDs) would make an important contribution to prediction of outcome and hence patient management. The study reported here is based on analysis of three fiscal years of the Victorian public hospital transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and stroke admissions. The incidence of NPDs and co-occurrence of NPD-associated prefix categories (that identify the onset or relevance of each condition to the episode) are described in each of the broad stroke subtypes. The distributions of length of stay and in-hospital deaths in the cohorts without and with NPDs and in the various prefix categories are determined. The study also compares the age and gender distribution in the various subpopulations of interest. The importance of collecting complete and accurate data on nature of NPDs and its potential in describing the complexity of presentation are discussed.

Emergency department triaging of admitted stroke patients—A Bayesian Network analysis

“…The principal diagnosis codes were used to select the cohort and assign the stroke subtypes as follows: 51 (1) stroke, not specified as haemorrhage or infarction (all I64, SnsHorI); (2) cerebral infarction (all I63, CI); (3) other nontraumatic intracranial haemorrhage (all I62, OntICH); (4) intracerebral haemorrhage (all I61, ICH); (5) subarachnoid haemorrhage (all I60, SAH); and, (6) transient cerebral ischaemic attacks and related syndromes (all G45 except G454, TIA). The current trend in clinical thinking is that there is a continuum between TIA and stroke 54 and the blurred boundaries between TIA and stroke has been discussed.…”

“…All hospitals in Victoria have to comply with standard definitions for reporting financial and statistical data. 25,51 Hence, the collection comprises of standardized data units required for reporting.…”

“…Each patient record in the dataset had one mandatory ICD version 10 with Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) code for the principal diagnosis and provisions to record up to 40 other ICD codes. The principal diagnosis codes were used to select the cohort and assign the stroke subtypes as follows: 51 (1) stroke, not specified as haemorrhage or infarction (all I64, SnsHorI);…”