Volume 9, Number 3—March 2003
Dispatch
The National Capitol Region’s Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance System: Do Chief Complaint and Discharge Diagnosis Yield Different Results?
Elizabeth M. Begier*, Denise Sockwell†, Leslie M. Branch†, John O. Davies-Cole‡, LaVerne H. Jones‡, Leslie Edwards§, Julie A. Casani§, and David Blythe§
Table 1
Relative frequencies of clinical syndromes and kappa statistics for emergency department syndromic-coding results comparing chief complaint vs. discharge diagnosis, National Capitol Region, December 2001a
| Syndrome | Chief complaint, % | Discharge diagnosis, % | Kappaa | Standard error |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Death |
0.23 |
0.26 |
0.6307 |
0.0160 |
| Sepsis |
0.03 |
0.46 |
0.1048 |
0.0071 |
| Rash |
1.38 |
0.79 |
0.5841 |
0.0154 |
| Respiratory |
13.37 |
10.61 |
0.6839 |
0.0158 |
| Gastrointestinal |
13.24 |
9.26 |
0.6768 |
0.0157 |
| Unspecified infection |
3.85 |
2.68 |
0.4191 |
0.0157 |
| Neurologic |
0.82 |
0.33 |
0.0846 |
0.0145 |
| Other |
67.08 |
75.61 |
0.6548 |
0.0156 |
| Overall | –b | –b | 0.6385 | 0.0104 |
aA total of 3,919 emergency department visits from two regional hospitals were used for all analyses.
bFrequencies not applicable to calculation of overall kappa as two categorical variables with eight values, one for each syndrome, were used for this analysis.
Page created: December 07, 2010
Page updated: December 07, 2010
Page reviewed: December 07, 2010
The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.