Central Distributor SASD: Description of Data Elements

DQTR - Discharge quarter

Documentation Sections:

General Notes

Uniform Values

State Specific Notes

General Notes

Discharge quarter (DQTR) is derived from either the month of the discharge date or the supplied discharge quarter. If both of those fields are invalid or missing, DQTR is set to zero. For these cases, a temporary discharge quarter = 3 was used for the DRG grouper and ICD-9-CM verification routines because these algorithms require a valid discharge quarter. For HCUP inpatient data only, a temporary discharge quarter = 3 was used for the DRG grouper and ICD-9-CM verification routines when the discharge quarter was missing or invalid because these algorithms require a valid discharge quarter.

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Uniform Values

Variable Description Value Value Description DQTR Discharge quarter 1 First quarter (Jan - Mar) 2 Second quarter (Apr - Jun) 3 Third quarter (Jul - Sep) 4 Fourth quarter (Oct - Dec) 0 Missing or invalid

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State Specific Notes

Florida Beginning in 2004, Florida supplied discharge dates for all records. In 1997- 2003, Florida did not supply discharge date. DQTR was assigned from the discharge quarter provided by Florida. Maryland Beginning in 2007, Maryland included the records from all other outpatients, Greenbaum cancer center, and UMMS shock trauma in the unified AS and ED outpatient data file. The inclusion of these new records resulted in a large increase in the frequency of records in the third quarter (Jul - Sep) and fourth quarter (Oct - Dec).

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