Technical documents
Page contents: Overview | PSI Downloads | Download documents
Overview
The following information relates to the version of the AHRQ PSIs that has been translated for use with ICD-10-AM datasets. The key difference between this set and the AusPSIs is that this set does not incorporate the refinements that were made to capture the functionality that is available in ICD-10-AM. The most important of these refinements is the use of the condition onset flag. The list of indicators to which the following technical documents and guidance relates are:
- Complications of anaesthesia
- Death in low-mortality DRGs
- Decubitus ulcer
- Failure to rescue
- Foreign body left during procedure
- Iatrogenic pneumothorax
- Postoperative hip fracture
- Postoperative haemorrhage or haematoma
- Postoperative respiratory failure
- Postoperative pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis
- Postoperative sepsis
- Postoperative wound dehiscence
- Accidental puncture or laceration
- Transfusion reaction
- Obstetric trauma – caesarean delivery
- Obstetric trauma – vaginal with instrument
- Obstetric trauma – vaginal without instrument
- Birth trauma – injury to neonate
Technical documentation relating to the refined set of PSIs, known as the as the AusPSIs, will be available shortly.
PSI Downloads
The PSI downloads consist of a series of SAS® computer programs and SAS® input files containing the ICD-10-AM diagnosis and procedure codes and AR-DRGs used to define the numerator and denominator of each translated PSI. Input files are available for ICD-10-AM 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of coding and AR-DRG versions 3, 4 and 5.
To use this software:
- users must have access to SAS®;
- download the SAS® programs and input files;
- provide the input hospital discharge data in a SAS® dataset format; and
- amend the user specified data items in the SAS® programs to reference the appropriate variables and values in their dataset.
PSI SAS® programs (49kb, WinZip file)
PSI SAS® input files (860kb, WinZip file)
To apply the PSI software, a user will need to:
- Download the SAS® computer programs and input files.
- Modify the SAS® programs to allocate the library ‘PSI’ to the path at which the downloaded input files are located within their computer. By default, the path of this library is ‘C:\Data\Patient Safety Indicators’. The programs are also configured to source the input admitted episode data from this library by default.
- Specify the names and values of various macro variables defined by a series of %LET statements at the start of the programs, including:
- The edition of ICD-10-AM used to code diagnoses and procedures in the input dataset. Diagnosis and procedure codes should be character strings and not contain any decimal points.
- The prefixes used to name the diagnosis and procedure variable arrays.
- The number of variables contained in each of the diagnosis and procedure variable arrays. By default, the programs are configured for a dataset with the same number of variables in each of the diagnosis and procedure arrays.
Users are referred to the data dictionary for the Victorian Admitted Episode Dataset (VAED), on which the programs are originally based, for guidance on some of the attributes which are optimal for program performance.
A SAS® user familiar with the macro language will be able to modify the programs to retain additional variables of interest, store the hospital discharge dataset with episodes contributing to the numerator and denominator flagged (directed to temporary ‘Work’ directory by default), present the data in tabular or graphical form, or run over a time-series of admitted episode datasets.
Download documents
VAED 2006-07 Data Item Descriptions and Definitions (20kb, MS Word)