1. Improving injury surveillance data quality: a study based on hospitals contributing to the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset
- Author
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Sheppard, Dianne M., Hayman, Jane, Allen, Trevor J., and Berecki?Gisolf, Janneke
- Subjects
Victoria -- Health aspects ,Quality management ,Statistics ,Usage ,Information management ,Health aspects ,Company systems management ,Hospitals -- Information management -- Australia ,Data processing -- Usage ,Injuries -- Statistics ,Sentinel surveillance -- Quality management ,Electronic data processing -- Usage ,Sentinel health events -- Quality management ,Wounds and injuries -- Statistics - Abstract
Worldwide, injuries are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. In 2017/18 in Australia, there were more than half a million (532,562) injury?related hospital admissions and 13,028 injury?related deaths.[sup.1] Victoria [...], : Objective: In this paper, we describe the design and baseline data of a study aimed at improving injury surveillance data quality of hospitals contributing to the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD). Methods: The sequential study phases include a baseline analysis of data quality, direct engagement and communication with each of the emergency department (ED) hospital sites, collection of survey and interview data and ongoing monitoring. Results: In 2019/20, there were 371,683 injury?related ED presentations recorded in the VEMD. Percentage unspecified, the indicator of (poor) data quality, was lowest for ?body region? (2.7%) and ?injury type? (7.4%), and highest for ?activity when injured? (29.4%). In the latter, contributing hospitals ranged from 3.0?99.9% unspecified. The ?description of event? variable had a mean word count of 10; 16/38 hospitals had a narrative word count of Conclusions: Baseline hospital injury surveillance data vary vastly in data quality, leaving much room for improvement and justifying intervention as described. Implications for public health: Hospital engagement and feedback described in this study is expected to have a marked effect on data quality from 2021 onwards. This will ensure that Victorian injury surveillance data can fulfil their purpose to accurately inform injury prevention policy and practice.
- Published
- 2022
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