Washington Administrative Code
Title 246 - Health, Department of
HEALTH INFORMATION
Chapter 246-455 - Hospital patient discharge information reporting
Section 246-455-010 - Definitions

(1) "CHARS" means comprehensive hospital abstract reporting system.

(2) "CHARS Companion Guide" means the written technical guidelines for creating and submitting hospital patient discharge data from the hospital to the department or the department's designee as required for CHARS.

(3) "CHARS Procedure Manual" means the written instructions for reporting hospital discharge data to the department.

(4) "Custom data file" means a specialized patient discharge data file created and released by the department upon request of an individual. Custom data file does not mean standard data file.

(5) "Data" means a data file containing multiple patient discharge records submitted to the department as required for CHARS.

(6) "Data use agreement" means a signed agreement with the department for transmitting, receiving and using records containing individually identifiable or potentially identifiable health information. The agreement specifies, at a minimum, what information will be exchanged, the conditions or restrictions under which the information will be used and protected, restrictions on redisclosure of data and restrictions on attempts to locate information associated with a specific individual.

(7) "Department" means Washington state department of health.

(8) "Designee" means a private entity contracted by the department to perform data collection on behalf of the department as authorized by RCW 43.70.052(1).

(9) "Diagnosis-related groups (DRG)" is a classification system that groups hospital patients according to principal and secondary diagnosis, presence or absence of a surgical procedure, age, presence or absence of significant comorbidities or complications, and other relevant criteria.

(10) "Direct patient identifier" means information that identifies a patient.

(11) "Discharge data" means a collection of patient records in which each record represents a single patient discharged from the hospital following an inpatient or observation stay.

(12) "Government agencies" include state boards, commissions, committees, departments, educational institutions, or other state agencies which are created by or pursuant to statute, other than courts and the legislature; county or city agencies, federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations, and United States federal agencies.

(13) "Hospital" means any health care institution licensed under chapter 70.41 RCW or a psychiatric hospital licensed under chapter 71.12 RCW.

(14) "Human research review board" is the standing institutional review board operating under chapter 42.48 RCW.

(15) "Indirect patient identifier" means information that may identify a patient when combined with other information.

(16) "Office of Management and Budget" means a body within the Executive Office of the President of the United States which is tasked with coordinating United States Federal agencies and can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb.

(17) "Patient discharge" means the termination of an in-patient admission or observation stay, including an admission as a result of a birth, in a Washington hospital.

(18) "Research" means a systematic investigation, including research development, testing, and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. Activities that meet this definition constitute research for purposes of this rule, whether or not they are conducted or supported under a program that is considered research for other purposes.

(19) "Standard data file" means the routine patient discharge data file created and released by the department, and does not mean custom data file.

(20) "State" means Washington state unless otherwise specified.

(21) "UB-04 data set" means the uniform billing data element specifications developed by the National Uniform Billing Committee which can be found at www.NUBC.org.