Variable

STS National Database Definition Issues

Variable

Issues

Pre-Operative Risk Factors

How to classify disease processes that was not part of patients history but appeared on admission (i.e. diabetic with elevated glucose and given some sub-q insulin)

Pre-Operative Cardiac Status: Angina

How to account for variation in geographic or practice treatment methodology of angina. (random use of NTG and admission to ICU). Time frame again was issue a) presentation to hospital or b) presentation to surgery.

Preoperative Patient History-Risk Factors

How to code non history disease processes but diagnosed on admission (i.e. diabetic with no history but has elevated glucose on admit and placed on oral or insulin)

Diabetic Control: should treatment method be a chronic use and if so what time frame

Immunosuppressive Tx: does this apply to one time doses or steroidal inhalers?

Preoperative Patient History-Cardiac Medications

Do one time doses count as mediations within 24 hours of surgical procedure? What defines a thrombolytic, anticoagulant or antiplatelet?

PreOperative MI

 

 

 

 

 

Variable

Issues

NYHA and CCS Classifications

NYHA is strictly functional status or heart failure, CCS is anginal status. How can one measure status in hospital? Does this refer to time or surgery, time of admission? Does this refer to highest level at any of these time frames?

MICS Section

 

Re-Intubation

Is it ventilation or extubation?

Reop for bleed and tamponade

Questions raised about opening chest in ICU, does this get coded as a return for reop bleed

Post-Op Wound infection

 

Operative Mortality-Yes/No as related to mortality location

Question raised regarding the use of extended care for potential "gaming" of deaths

Define what includes an extended or acute care facility and its relationship to op mort. Definition

Complications – Return to OR

Do return to the OR for trach, PEG tubes, AICDs, bowel resections, dialysis access count as "Reop non-Cardiac"?

 

 

 

Variable

Issues

Predicted Risk Score for Population and /or individual patient

There currently is no possible way to generate a pred risk for an individual patient or patient population with the various risk categories like there was in the Summit software. Is this the responsibility of the STS or Vendors?

Blood Product

What constitutes Blood product

# of Incisions in MICS section

 

EF Value

Can the STS assign value to text documentation? Method of reducing the % of missing EF values

Readmission

Concern regarding the report variations within regions and national when some sites follow patients to the 30 days and others do not. Sense of being penalized for following patients and increased occurrences.

Specification Fields

How do handle missing data fields (i.e numerical EF, PA mean)

 

 

 

Variable

Issues

Non-Submitting Sites

Concern over ability to harvest this fall due to vendor certification and conversion of data. Many sites do not feel they will be able to meet the deadline and if they do will have incomplete data sets for specified time frames

Non-Submitting Sites and Report

How to handle non-submitting sites and request for national report

MICS section

Cumulative ischemic times - ? delete



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