Reliability of COVID-19 case definitions in administrative and clinical databases (Q21-04)

Understanding the quality of diagnostic coding of COVID-19, particularly in outpatient settings where laboratory test results may not be readily available to coders or billers, is important for drug regulatory agencies that are actively studying drug use among patients with COVID-19. To our knowledge, the quality of COVID-19 diagnosis coding in emergency department records and outpatient physician claims has not been studied, and the quality of hospital discharge coding has not been studied in Canada.

This study will provide evidence of the validity of COVID-19 diagnoses recorded in hospital discharge abstracts, emergency department records, and outpatient physician service claims in multiple Canadian provinces (BC, ON and MB) using comprehensive, population-based SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid laboratory test results as the reference standard data source.