• Michael M Dinh, Saartje Berendsen Russell, and Kendall J Bein.
• Emergency Department, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
• Emerg Med Australas. 2019 Oct 1; 31 (5): 830-836.

ObjectivesThe aims of the present study were to describe the distribution of Systematised Nomenclature of Medicine - Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT) codes used in the current New South Wales Emergency Department Data Collection (NSW EDDC) and classify duplicate and redundant terms into clinically meaningful sub-groups for future analyses.MethodsThis was an analysis of ED diagnosis codes using a large state-wide administrative ED dataset between 2015 and 2018.ResultsA total of 7.4 million (77%) of ED episode diagnoses were coded with SNOMED-CT. Of those coded with SNOMED-CT, 12 152 unique codes were identified. Around 1000 of the most frequently used codes accounted for 90% of the presentations coded with SNOMED-CT and 5000 codes accounted for 99.8% of these. Around 7000 codes were deemed to be redundant, and duplication in terms exists across all sub-groups.ConclusionThe use of SNOMED-CT in the NSW EDDC has resulted in substantial use of non-specific, duplicate and redundant codes, limiting the capacity of the NSW EDDC to be used for effective data analysis.© 2019 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.

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