Abstract
Objective
To compare self-report and South Carolina administrative billing data documentation
of emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations in the past 12 months among
a population-based cohort of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Design
Cross-sectional study.
Setting
SCI surveillance system in South Carolina.
Participants
Persons (N=605) sustaining a traumatic SCI between January 1, 1998 and December 31,
2011 in South Carolina who, at the time of study assessment, were adults, were >1
years postinjury, and had not made a complete recovery.
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Hospitalizations and ED visits in the past 12 months.
Results
There was a significantly higher rate of reporting >1 hospitalizations in the past
year for self-report (36%) as compared with South Carolina administrative billing
data (26%) (P<.001), but not for >1 ED visits (48% vs 45%; P=.11). Decreased physical health and increased injury severity were associated with
higher reporting rates of hospitalization. Physical health and injury severity were
predictive of both self-report and South Carolina administrative billing data of hospitalizations,
whereas years postinjury and race were also predictors of South Carolina administrative
billing data hospitalizations.
Conclusions
Our comparison of self-report and South Carolina administrative billing data hospitalizations
and ED visits showed a significantly higher rate of reporting of hospitalizations
using self-report, specifically among those with poor physical health and higher injury
severity. Future work should look at different ways of asking about health care utilization
and compare with South Carolina administrative billing data documentation to identify
the best ways to assess through self-report.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
ED (emergency department), ICD-9-CM (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification), PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire), RQ (research question), SCI (spinal cord injury)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 12, 2016
Footnotes
Supported by the Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (grant no. H133B090005) and by the South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund (SCSCIRF) (grant no. SCIRF 09-001). However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education or the SCSCIRF, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government or the state of South Carolina.
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
