Outpatient Use
The Texas Health Care Information Collection program (THCIC) collects discharge data from state licensed hospitals except those statutorily exempt from the reporting requirement. This dashboard displays data from patients who received inpatient care without being seen in a hospital emergency department. Data are summarized either by Principle Diagnostic Group, which describes the diagnoses the patient received treatment for during their stay, or by Procedure Groups, a classification system for categorizing outpatient procedures.
For questions about this data, send email to thcichelp@dshs.texas.gov or call (512) 776-7261
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Texas Health Care Information Collection (THCIC)Data Description
The Texas Health Care Information Collection (THCIC) was created by Chapter 108 of the Texas Health and Safety Code (THSC) and is responsible, under Sections 108.011 through 108.0135, for collecting hospital discharge data from all state licensed hospitals except those that are statutorily exempt from the reporting requirement. The Outpatient Utilization dashboard uses the Texas outpatient surgical and radiological procedure data Public Use Data Files (PUDF). For more details on the data source, data collection and data dictionary, see the Texas Outpatient Public Use Data File.
Measure Information
Outpatient visits
An event or visit for a patient who received services for one or more procedures that included an invasive surgical procedures or imaging/radiological procedures in a hospital or ambulatory surgery center.
County
County of patients who live in Texas (county of residence). "Missing" reflects statewide visits where the county was not recorded, is unknown, or is suppressed. Thus, in some years, the statewide total will be greater than the sum of the county totals.
Expected Payment 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.
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)
Principal Diagnosis Group
The Principal Diagnosis Group utilizes the Clinical Classifications Software Refined (CCSR) https://hcup-us.ahrq.gov/toolssoftware/ccsr/ccs_refined.jsp. It is a diagnosis categorization scheme developed by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), a Federal-State-Industry partnership sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The ICD-10-CM principal diagnosis was categorized by CCS into a manageable number of clinically meaningful categories, making it easier to quickly understand patterns of diagnoses.
Procedure Group
The Enhanced Ambulatory Patient Group (EAPG) classification system is used for categorizing outpatient surgical and radiological procedures. The EAPG system was developed by 3MTM. It consolidates multiple procedures into the significant procedure groups, which simplifies the analysis and reporting.
Total Charges
Sum of accommodation charges, non-covered accommodation charges, ancillary charges, and non-covered ancillary charges.
Average Total Charges per Visit
Total charges / number of visits within the same time period specified in the dashboard filter options
Average Total Charges per Procedure
Total charges / number of procedures performed within the time period specified in the dashboard filter options
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