Data Dictionary Assignment: You are an RHIT who has been asked at work to help a
ID: 242062 • Letter: D
Question
Data Dictionary Assignment:
You are an RHIT who has been asked at work to help assist the Information Technology (IT) department in creating a data dictionary that will be used for data collection in the new MPI at your hospital. Analyze the suggested format that the IT department has submitted. Identify possible problems with the way the fields would be entered into the system. Make recommendations on how to improve the information, including missing data elements, inappropriate data elements, and ways to improve data collection.
Suggested Format by the IT Department:
Field
Format
Number of Characters
Patient Name
FN, MI, LN
25
Medical Record #
Numeric
6
Address
Alpha
25
City, State and Zip
Alphanumeric
25
Date of Birth
Numeric
6
Race
B, W, H
2
Gender
M, F, U
1
Chief Complaint
Alpha
25
Field
Format
Number of Characters
Patient Name
FN, MI, LN
25
Medical Record #
Numeric
6
Address
Alpha
25
City, State and Zip
Alphanumeric
25
Date of Birth
Numeric
6
Race
B, W, H
2
Gender
M, F, U
1
Chief Complaint
Alpha
25
Explanation / Answer
Recommended format:
The difference between the suggested and recommend format is the date of birth and address format. The given number of characters for date of birth is 6, the recommended number of characters is 8. Because the format for date is mm/dd/yyyy. The address format should also be changed because the address may include numbers like house number, apartment number. Thus in the recommended format, the format for address has been changed to alphanumeric characters.
The other recommendation will be inclusion of nationality in the format. It includes alpha characters and the number of characters will be 25 characters.
Field Format Number of characters Patient name FN, MN, LN 25 Medical record # Numeric 6 Address Alphanumeric 25 City, state, zip Alphanumeric 25 Date of birth Numeric 8 Race B, W, H 2Related Questions
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