Injury Coding and Hospital Discharge Data-Reply

Abstract

In Reply.— We agree that emergency department databases are another valuable source of injury information. These databases can provide information on a broad spectrum of injured persons— those who require hospitalization and those treated in the emergency department and released. Our article high-lighted the usefulness of E-coded hospital discharge data systems in providing information on severe nonfatal injuries. Because the catchment area population for a single hospital usually is not known, data from a single emergency department may be difficult to interpret. Calculating rates on injury occurrence, therefore, is difficult because persons who present for treatment of injury at one emergency department cannot be linked to a specific population at risk. The injury patients cared for in a single emergency department may not be representative of those cases that occur in the community. By linking emergency department data from all hospitals in a region, we could overcome this problem. Although