Primary procedure

Terminology

Reports Aristotle Score Central database Fundamental diagnosis Outcome assigned to Primary procedure Small procedures

Report parameters

Thirty days mortality Hospital mortality Length of stay Basic Score

Data

Validation Validation rules Entry ratio Flow Verification Source data verification Selective entry Backup

Primary procedure is the most important, the most significant procedure in specific operation. In most cases, it's the procedure with highest Basic Score.

Usage of primary procedure in database reports

The full database structure employs a model where one patient is exposed to multiple procedures during multiple operation. An example table in a relational database would look like this:

Patient ID	Procedure name
Patient1	Procedure1
Patient1	Procedure2
Patient2	Procedure3
Patient2	Procedure2
Patient3	Procedure1
Patient4	Procedure1
Patient4	Procedure2
Patient4	Procedure3

However, this model doesn't allow to perform a "mortality vs procedure" report, because mortality is a property of a patient, and one procedure has to be chosen as the "responsible" procedure. To perform a "mortality vs procedure" report, the above table has to be reduced down to this model, with no repeating "Patient ID" value:

Patient ID	Procedure name
Patient1	Procedure1
Patient2	Procedure3
Patient3	Procedure1
Patient4	Procedure1

The reduction is performed in such a way, that each patient-procedure link has an assigned priority, like this:

Patient ID	Procedure name	Priority
Patient1	Procedure1	1
Patient1	Procedure2	2
Patient2	Procedure3	1
Patient2	Procedure2	2
Patient3	Procedure1	1
Patient4	Procedure1	1
Patient4	Procedure2	2
Patient4	Procedure3	3

To reduce the table, only rows with priority equal to 1 are left, and all others removed:

Patient ID	Procedure name	Priority
Patient1	Procedure1	1
Patient2	Procedure3	1
Patient3	Procedure1	1
Patient4	Procedure1	1

In this was, the report takes into account only one procedure per patient, which allows to perform a "mortality vs procedure" report. However, this report "forgets" about all other procedures (priority 2, 3, 4...) so some information is lost in the process of reduction.

Uniqueness

Pairs patient - priority need to be unique. In other words, one patient must not have two procedures with the same priorities. In another words, one patient must have exactly one procedure with priority 1. Since the priorities are assigned by hand during data entry, they are error-prone and there are many priority-related non-valid records. We've prepared a special tool for correcting priority-related problems. See page priority repair.

See also

• Priority repair
• Mortality assigned to
• Fundamental diagnosis