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. 1990 Dec;80(12):1463–1466. doi: 10.2105/ajph.80.12.1463

Coding external causes of injury (E-codes) in Maryland hospital discharges 1979-88: a statewide study to explore the uncoded population.

B Marganitt 1, E J MacKenzie 1, G S Smith 1, A M Damiano 1
PMCID: PMC1405099  PMID: 2240331

Abstract

We examined the trends in hospital discharge E-coding in Maryland over a 10-year period. The overall proportion of E-coded discharges has increased from 40 percent in 1979 to 55 percent in 1988. E-coding was lower in the severely injured, the elderly, and patients with long hospital stays. Our findings demonstrate that E-code reporting varies because of the limited number of data fields available for coding of discharge diagnoses. Universal, systematic reporting of E-codes in hospital discharge data is essential if these data are to provide critically needed information about nonfatal injuries. Hospital discharge data formats should contain separate fields for E-codes and the use of these codes, we believe, should be mandated.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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