The West Virginia Health Care Authority collects patient discharge information on
all patients discharged from West Virginia general acute care, psychiatric and medical
rehabilitation hospitals. To facilitate the collection of a uniform dataset and
to minimize the reporting burden on the hospitals, the primary source document for
the information is the Uniform Bill (UB) claim form used by hospitals to bill payors.
Hospitals are required to submit copies of the UB claim for every patient discharged,
regardless of the expected source of payment. Thus the database is then limited
for consideration to patient confidentialty. The Authority is required to preserve
the confidentiality of individual patient information by both state and federal
regulations. At the same time, the Authority recognizes the usefulness of this database
for health care planning and analysis, and wishes to make its data available
in as much detail as possible while safeguarding patient confidentiality.
The Inpatient hospital discharge database provides important opportunities for individuals
and organizations who analyze and make decisions about health care. When data users
could benefit from more specific information, special compilations can be tailored
to meet their precise information needs.