Section[ Introduction
Title[ Introduction
Hospital emergency departments (EDs) in the United States serve a unique role in health care delivery. They are the only institutional providers mandated by federal
law to evaluate anyone seeking care. They are expected at least to stabilize the most se- verely ill and injured patients, and they are primary care providers for vast numbers
of people who lack access to a regular source of health care services. Because of the case mix and volume of patients they treat, the estimated 4,800 EDs in the United States are well positioned to provide data for public health surveillance, community risk assessment, research, education, training, quality improvement, health care adminis- tration and finance, and other uses (Garrison et al., 1994). However, variations in the way that data are entered in different ED record systems, and even within individu- al systems, impede the use of ED records for patient care and deter their reuse for multiple secondary applications. The content and format of records differ from site to site, and incompatibilities exist in many data definitions and codes. Further standard- ization is needed, particularly if the rapidly accelerating pace of computerization is to facilitate rather than complicate aggregation and analysis of data from multiple EDs. Several related initiatives are under way in the United States to foster more uniform emergency care data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Nation- al Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) is coordinating one of these initiatives — a public-private partnership that has developed recommended specifica- tions for many of the observations, actions, instructions, and conclusions that are entered in ED records. Data Elements for Emergency Department Systems, Release 1.0 (DEEDS) is the initial product of this broad-based, collaborative effort.
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