Data Source

Texas Health Care Information Collection (THCIC)

Data Source and Description

The Texas Health Care Information Collection (THCIC) was created by Chapter 108 of the Texas Health and Safety Code (THSC) and as specified by the 2014-15 General Appropriations Act, S.B. 1, 83rd Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2013 (Article II, Department of State Health Services [DSHS], Rider 93), collects hospital emergency department (ED) data per 25 Texas Administrative Code (TAC), Sections 421.71-421.78. The Texas Emergency Department Use dashboard uses the Hospital Emergency Department Public Use Data Files (PUDF) which consists of data from the Inpatient PUDF and the Outpatient PUDF. For more details on the data source, data collection and data dictionary, see the Texas Emergency Department Data webpage.

Measure Information

Inpatient ED hospitalization: ED visits for patients who were admitted into the hospital for care. The inpatient hospital stay may last several hours to days, weeks or years, depending upon the condition or status of the patient before being discharged. The determination of an inpatient ED visit is based on the use of Revenue Codes indicating emergency department service line charges (‘0450’, ‘0451’, ‘0452’, ‘0456’, and ‘0459’). These codes are used for payment determination and are generally more accurate than type of admission or source of admission codes.

County

County of patients that live in Texas (county of residence). “Missing” reflects statewide visits where the county was not recorded, unknown or suppressed. Thus, in some years, the statewide total will be greater than the sum of the county totals.

Payor Source

The expected payer for the outpatient ED visit. The first-listed payer is used to categorize into general groups.

Race/Ethnicity

The patient’s race and ethnicity are combined. Hispanic race/ethnicity includes patients who identify themselves as Hispanic ethnicity regardless of race. The rest are grouped into their specific non-Hispanic race including White, Black, and Other.

Patient status

Patient status as of the ending date of service for the period of care reported.

Source of Admission

Indicates source of the admission. E.g. Clinic or Physician’s Office.

Public Health Regions

Eight regions as categorized and defined by Texas DSHS (https://www.dshs.texas.gov/regions/default.shtm).

Metropolitan Status

Metropolitan Statistical Area as defined by the Office of Management and Budget (https://dshs.texas.gov/chs/info/info_metro.shtm).

All Patient Refined–Diagnosis Related Group (APR-DRG)

The 3M™ APR-DRGs are a patient classification scheme which provides a means of relating the type of patients a hospital treats (i.e., its case mix) to the costs incurred by the hospital. The APR-DRGs consist of classes of patients that are similar clinically and in terms of their consumption of hospital resources.

All Patient Refined–Major Diagnostic Category (APR-MDC)

The APR-MDC is the “Major Diagnostic Category (MDC) as assigned by 3M™ APR-DRG Grouper. The APR-MDC are 25 mutually exclusive diagnosis areas that are formed from all possible principal diagnoses. The diagnoses in each MDC correspond to a single organ system or etiology and in general are associated with a particular medical specialty.

Risk of Mortality

Assignment of a risk of mortality score from the All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Group (APR-DRG) from the 3M™ APR-DRG Grouper. Indicates the likelihood of dying.

Severity of Illness

Assignment of a severity of illness score from the All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Group (APR-DRG) from the 3M™ APR-DRG Grouper. Indicates the extent of physiologic decompensation.

Mortality

Mortality or a fatal visit was based on the use of the patient status code (i.e., individuals with a patient status code of death: ‘20’, ‘40’, ‘41’, or ‘42’). Note that counts with fewer than 5 are suppressed on the dashboard.

For more information about this dashboard, please contact CHS-Info@dshs.texas.gov