Comparing Diagnostic Coding and Laboratory Results

摘要

To the Editor: The globalMilitary Health System maintainselectronic inpatient (StandardInpatient Data Record, SIDR) andoutpatient (Standard AmbulatoryData Record, SADR) clinical diag-nostic coded data generated by theDepartment of Defense CompositeHealth Care System (CHCS), an elec-tronic system that tracks and storesadministrative and other patientencounter data. Because theserecords are readily available, wide-spread monitoring of these data as ameans of medical surveillance hasbeen suggested (1,2). Only 1 study inthe literature assessed electronic cod-ing reliability of these data (3); thoseauthors found SIDRs to be a reliablesource of billing data for commondiagnoses, not including notifiableinfectious diseases. We comparedSADR and SIDR infectious diseasediagnostic codes to laboratory data toassess the usefulness of these datasetsin notifiable disease surveillance