Reconciling hospital-acquired complications and CHADx+ in Victorian coded hospital data

Performance of ICD-10-AM codes for quality improvement monitoring of hospital-acquired pneumonia in a haematology-oncology casemix in Victoria, Australia

BACKGROUND

The Australian hospital-acquired complication (HAC) policy was introduced to facilitate negative funding adjustments in Australian hospitals using ICD-10-AM codes.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to determine the positive predictive value (PPV) of the ICD-10-AM codes in the HAC framework to detect hospital-acquired pneumonia in patients with cancer and to describe any change in PPV before and after implementation of an electronic medical record (EMR) at our centre.

METHOD

A retrospective case review of all coded pneumonia episodes at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia spanning two time periods (01 July 2015 to 30 June 2017 [pre-EMR period] and 01 September 2020 to 28 February 2021 [EMR period]) was performed to determine the proportion of events satisfying standardised surveillance definitions.

RESULTS

HAC-coded pneumonia occurred in 3.66% (n = 151) of 41,260 separations during the study period. Of the 151 coded pneumonia separations, 27 satisfied consensus surveillance criteria, corresponding to an overall PPV of 0.18 (95% CI: 0.12, 0.25). The PPV was approximately three times higher following EMR implementation (0.34 [95% CI: 0.19, 0.53] versus 0.13 [95% CI: 0.08, 0.21]; p = .013).

CONCLUSION

The current HAC definition is a poor-to-moderate classifier for hospital-acquired pneumonia in patients with cancer and, therefore, may not accurately reflect hospital-level quality improvement. Implementation of an EMR did enhance case detection, and future refinements to administratively coded data in support of robust monitoring frameworks should focus on EMR systems.

IMPLICATIONS

Although ICD-10-AM data are readily available in Australian healthcare settings, these data are not sufficient for monitoring and reporting of hospital-acquired pneumonia in haematology-oncology patients.

Mortality is not increased with Diabetes in hospitalised very old adults: a multi-site review

Background

Few data exist regarding hospital outcomes in people with diabetes aged beyond 75 years. This study aimed to explore the association of diabetes with hospital outcome in the very old patient.

Methods

A retrospective review was conducted of all presentations of patients aged 65 years or more admitted to three Sydney teaching hospitals over 6 years (2012–2018), exploring primarily the outcomes of in-hospital mortality, and secondarily the outcomes of length of stay, the development of hospital-acquired adverse events and unplanned re-admission to hospital within 28 days of discharge. Demographic and outcome data, the presence of diabetes and comorbidities were determined from ICD10 coding within the hospital’s electronic medical record. Logistic and negative binomial regression models were used to assess the association of diabetes with outcome.

Results

A total of 139,130 separations (mean age 80 years, range 65 to 107 years; 51% female) were included, with 49% having documented comorbidities and 26.1% a diagnosis of diabetes.

When compared to people without diabetes, diabetes was not associated with increased odds of mortality (OR: 0.89 SE (0.02), p < 0.001). Further, because of a significant interaction with age, diabetes was associated with decreased odds of mortality beyond 80 years of age. While people with diabetes overall had longer lengths of stay (10.2 days SD (13.4) v 9.4 days SD (12.3), p < 0.001), increasing age was associated with shorter lengths of stay in people aged more than 90 years. Diabetes was associated with increased odds of hospital-acquired adverse events (OR: 1.09 SE (0.02), p < 0.001) and but not 28-day re-admission (OR: 0.88 SE (0.18), p = 0.523).

Conclusion

Diabetes has not been shown to have a negative impact on mortality or length of stay in hospitalised very old adults from data derived from hospital administrative records. This may allow a more measured application of diabetic guidelines in the very old hospitalised patient.