Introduction

The purpose of this file format is to provide a file format which is easy to generate from the data already being collected in hospitals.

For this reason, it uses DSS and DRS Code Sets and items already defined in DSS.

There are some limitations to the grouping which can be performed using this file format, because it doesn't contain a few data items which are required for grouping ambulatory data:

Specifically, the excluded data items are:

• Provider Flags: Medical, Nursing, Physical Therapy, Psychosocial Therapy - these are used for most ambulatory AN-SNAP classes
• Focus of Care: this is used for classifying Psychogeriatric Ambulatory episodes
• PCPSS: this is used for Palliative Care Ambulatory phases

 Please see the section 'Notes and Assumptions' below to understand more about how these data items are interpreted by QuickSnap when this file format is used.

Data Items

Abbreviations

• RUG: Resource Utilisation Groups
• PCPSS: Palliative Care Problem Severity Score
• FIM: Functional Independence Measure
• HoNOS 65+: Health of the Nation Outcome Scale 65+

Notes and Assumptions

• Episode Type is not part of DSS but will need to be included in the file as it is a core SNAP data item.  Generally the assumption would be: Episode Type = Overnight (1)
• Start Date and End Date: these data items have been modified from the previous description of Episode Admission Date and Episode Discharge Date to generalise because Palliative Care groups on Phase rather than Episode. 
• Thus we have the distinction:
• Case Type: Palliative Care: Start Date = Phase Start Date, End Date = Phase End Date
• Case Type: all except Palliative Care: Start Date = Episode Start Date, End Date = Episode End Date
• Age and Length of Stay will be derived using the rules as per QuickSnap Native Format
• PCPSS has been omitted from this file format because it is not part of the DSS Data Set. 
• QuickSnap will assume PCPSS = ‘missing’
• This will result in most Episodes with Case Type: Palliative Care, Episode Type: Ambulatory (Same Day, Outpatient, Community) being ungroup-able
• HoNOS 65+ Scores provided in DSS will be mapped directly to HoNOS scores used in AN-SNAP
• Focus of Care has been omitted from this file format because it is not part of the DSS Data Set
• QuickSnap will assume Focus of Care = ‘missing’
• This will result in most Episodes with Case Type: Psychogeriatric, Episode Type: Ambulatory (Same Day, Outpatient, Community) being ungroup-able
• Provider Type Flags (Medical, Nursing, Physical Therapy, Psychosocial Therapy) have been omitted from the file format because they are not part of the DSS Data Set
• QuickSnap will assume all of these data items are ‘missing’
• This would result in grouping errors for the following Case Type/Episode Type combinations:
  • Palliative Care – All Ambulatory (Same Day, Outpatient, Community)
  • Rehabilitation – Outpatient, Community
  • GEM – Outpatient, Community
  • Maintenance – All Ambulatory (Same Day, Outpatient, Community)
• • Due to the fact that Outpatient and Community ‘Episode Types’ are not relevant for DSS Data Collection, in practise this will only result in grouping errors for Palliative Care and Maintenance All Ambulatory episodes
• Different Code Sets: The following data items use different code sets to the native QuickSnap Native Format.  QuickSnap will accept the DSS/DRS Code Set and map to the relevant SNAP Code Set as outlined in the tables below: 
  • DSS Case Type
  • DSS clinical assessment only indicator
  • DRS Palliative Care Phase Type
  • DSS type of maintenance provided

DSS Compatible Format Code Sets and Mappings

DSS Case Type

DSS clinical assessment only indicator

Because 3 and 9 map to ‘Unknown’ these values will result in grouping errors for Case Type/Episode Type combinations which require the ‘Assessment Only’ flag.

DRS Palliative Care Phase Type

Because 9 maps to ‘Unknown’, records with this value will result in grouping errors for Case Type/Episode Type combinations which require Phase Type (almost all Palliative Care episodes)

DSS Maintenance Type

Because 98 and 99 map to ‘Unknown’, these values will result in grouping errors for Case Type/Episode Type combinations which require Maintenance Type (Case Type: Maintenance,  Episode Type: Overnight)