Frequently Asked Questions - 1st DRAFT

 

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

 

Frequently Asked Questions: Adult Cardiac Surgery Database

 

Version 2.52.1

 

 August, 2006

 

 

How to use the “interactive” FAQ Document:

 

1.  To review all clinical questions in an individual section, click on the section title below.

 

Section A:  seq# 40-80

Section F:  seq# 750-870

Section K:  seq# 1630-1880

Section P:  seq# 2710-3010

Section B:  seq# 100-210

Section G:  seq# 890-1040

Section L:  seq# 1920-2350

Section Q:  seq# 3020-3080

Section C:  seq# 220-340

Section H:  seq# 1050-1200

Section M:  seq# 2360-2560

Section R:  seq# 3090-3210

Section D:  seq# 350-550

Section I:  seq# 1210-1500

Section N:  seq# 2570-2600

Section S:  seq# 3220-3240

Section E:  seq# 560-670

Section J:  seq# 1520-1620

Section O:  seq# 2610-2700

 

 

2.      To review an individual Seq# clinical question, click on the Seq# title below.

 

310 ICUInHrs                                   2470 OCarAFib

340 TotHrICU                                  2560 OCarOthr

440 RenFail                                     2710 Complics                                                            

490 InfEndo                                     2750 COpReOth                                                         

850 ArrhyTyp                                   2780 CISternDeep

1050 NumDisV                                2830 CNStrokP

1260 EmergRsn                              2950 COtCoag

1280 OpCAB                                    3090-3180 Section R.

1310 OpOCard                                3220 Readm30

1380 PerfusTm                                3240 ReadmPro

1410 XClampTm

1640 OpMitral

1650 OpTricus

 

3.  CC/TM:  Corrections/Clarifications to Training Manual

 

NEW

Date

SeqNo

FieldName

Definition

 

 

220

Hospital Name

Indicate the full name of the facility where the procedure was performed.  Values should be full, official hospital name with no abbreviations or variations in spelling for a single hospital.  Values should also be in mixed-case.

 

 

230

Hospital ZIP Code

Indicate the ZIP Code of the hospital. Outside the USA, this data may be known by other names such as Postal Code.

 

 

240

Hospital State

Indicate the State in which the hospital is located.

 

 

250

Payor

Indicate the patient's primary insurance payor for this admission such as, but not limited to:

1. Government: Government insurance refers to patients who are covered by government-reimbursed care. In the U.S., this includes, Medicare, Medicaid, (including all state/federal Medicaid-type programs), TriCare and the Veteran’s Administration health plan.

2. Commercial: Commercial refers to all indemnity (fee-for-service) carriers and Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) (e.g. Blue Cross/Blue Shield).

3. HMO: HMO refers to a Health Maintenance Organization characterized by coverage that provides health care services for members on a pre-paid basis.

4. None: None refers to individuals with no or limited health insurance; thus, the

individual is the payor regardless of ability to pay. Only mark "None" when "self" or "none" is denoted as the first insurance in the medical record.

5. International patient: International patient refers to individuals who reside in and have a health insurance in another country and/or may be self pay.

 

 

260

Date of Admission

Indicate the Date of Admission.  For those patients who originally enter the hospital in an out-patient capacity (i.e. catheterization), the admit date is the date the patient's status changes to in-patient.

From version 2.41

 

Is this the date the patient comes to the hospital prior to surgery if the patient does not ever go home, or is it the day they are declared an inpatient?  We have many surgical patients who come in for their caths as outpatients and then are converted to inpatients when they are “admitted” for their surgery, but never actually leave the hospital.  They never leave the hospital but their status changes.

The date that the patient status changes to an inpatient status is the date for admission. (3-13-02)

 

 

270

Date of Surgery

Indicate the date of surgery which equals the date the patient enter the OR.

From version 2.41

7/03

Regarding date of surgery:  for surgeries that start on one date and end on another, i.e. starts at 10pm and ends at 2am, is the actual surgery date the date surgery begins or ends?

The date of surgery is the date the patient enters the OR suit.

 

 

340

Date of Discharge

Indicate the date the patient was discharged from the hospital (acute care). If the patient died in the hospital, the discharge date is the date of death.

From version 2.41

 

When a patient is transferred to our Rehab unit prior to going home, is this the date of discharge, or is it the date that they actually go home?

The date of discharge would be considered the date they leave the acute care facility.  3-13-02)

From version 2.41

 

If the date of discharge is calculated from the date that the patient leaves acute status, then is the “readmit” to the Rehab unit considered a “readmission within 30 days?”  They are considered an inpatient on the Rehab unit.

No, this is not considered a “readmit.”  A readmit is considered to be to the acute care facility. (3-13-02)

 

 

300

ICU Visit

Indicate whether the patient spent time in the ICU immediately following the initial surgery.  Include post-anesthesia recovery and other similar critical care environments.

 

 

310

Initial ICU hours

 

Indicate the number of hours the patient was initially in the ICU immediately following the initial surgery.  Include post-anesthesia recovery and other similar critical care environments. 

From version 2.41

 

Our patients generally are in the recovery area and then go straight to our telemetry floor.  Do we include the recovery area hours as the initial ICU stay or not?

Yes, include.  It appears you utilize your recovery area as an ICU.(3-13-02)

From version 2.41

6/03

Do the initial ICU hours begin when the patient gets to the open heart recovery area or when the patient leaves the OR in transport?

ICU hours begin when the patient arrives in the ICU or your institutions equivalent to an ICU.

From version 2.41

7/03

Patient involved in a MVA with a subsequent repair of an Aortic Transection.  Post-operatively went to the SICU and not the Cardiothoracic surgery ICU.  Should we still count the SICU hours as ICU hours?

Yes, count the SICU hours as ICU hours.  The intent is to capture critical care environment hours.  It does not matter what your institution calls their critical care environment (ICU, CVICU, SICU, anesthesia recovery unit).  If the patient is in a critical care environment then the hours need to be coded.

 

4/05

OR to ICU to OR to ICU = no ICU readmission.  Do not count OR time as ICU hours.  All ICU hours in this example should be captured as initial ICU hours.

NEW!

08/06

 For future releases will there be a way to submit data for sites that have single stay units.  Our patients stay in the ICU in a step down status until discharge.  This makes our ICU hours seem extreme.

I share your concern but you are collecting the data correctly

 

 

320

Readmission to ICU

Indicate whether the patient spent time in an ICU after having been transferred to a step-down unit (lower level care).  Specific situations are described below:

                        OR -> ICU -> OR -> ICU = No

                        OR -> ICU -> STEP DOWN -> ICU = Yes

                        OR -> STEP DOWN -> ICU = Yes

 

2/04

Patient undergoes reop including reintubated for surgery.  Patient to ICU postop and is extubated in less than 1 hour but stays in ICU overnight.  Do we count this as readmission to ICU?

 

This answer depends on the level of care that the patient required after the original surgery.  See the following examples:

 

1.  OR to ICU to OR to ICU = no re-admission to the ICU

2.  OR to ICU to stepdown to OR to ICU = yes, re-admission to ICU

 

 

330

Additional ICU Hours

Indicate the number of additional hours spent in the Intensive Care Unit.

 

 

340

Total Hrs ICU

Indicate the total number of hours post operation for which the patient was in the ICU. Leave blank if the patient expired in the OR.  Enter zero (0) if patient was never in post-anesthesia recovery or other similar critical care environment.  

From version 2.41

 

About 25% of our patients are ready to go to a stop down unit and don’t because there is no bed available.  Also, our patients do not go to the recovery room, making our ICU hours longer than institutions that use the recovery room.  Have other institutions encountered this issue?

Yes, this issue has been raised by other sites.  The definition is intended to capture the total number of hours that the patient actually remains in “Acute Care,” “Critical Care,” or “ICU Care.”  If there is a bed availability issue and patient has to stay in the ICU, you need to continue to monitor those hours.  It would become very “gray” in terns of when the actual ICU hours change (i.e. when were the orders written?  When did the staff first find out there was no bed?)  This is a process issue that needs to be collected and monitored for future improvement.  Also, you could track the number of hours the patient was in the ICU just waiting for a bed separately in a custom field, or in a separate database/spreadsheet.

 

The issue of the patient coming to the ICU right from surgery, bypassing the recovery room is very common and does cause some variance in reporting total hours between sites where patients go to recovery first.  If your site bypasses the recovery room, you need to count the hours and know that other sites that are set up like yours are reporting the same. (4-19-02)

NEW!

08/06

Does transfer of a patient to a ventilator unit for weaning constitute and ICU?

No