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The National Ambulatory Care Reporting System: factors that affect the quality of its emergency data

2008; Inderscience Publishers; Volume: 2; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1504/ijiq.2008.022958

1751-0465

Debbie Gibson, Heather Richards, Ann Chapman,

Primary Care and Health Outcomes

The National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS) records details of all of Ontario's emergency department visits. It is used for several planning, reporting and research purposes including facility-specific utilisation management decisions, costing and clinical outcomes research, policy development, and system planning and evaluation. Uses of NACRS data for these purposes rely on the data being both complete and accurate. Our goal was to determine the factors that affect the collection of high-quality NACRS emergency department data. The study involved surveying 15 facilities sampled from Ontario for a reabstraction study and completion of a self-administered questionnaire. The reabstraction study was designed to compare data obtained via the study to original data included on the NACRS database. The questionnaire collected information on facility practices. Study facilities were grouped by questionnaire responses, and comparisons of data discrepancy and agreement rates between groups highlighted the relationship between facility practices and data accuracy.