Inpatient Optional Variables

Many MICAs contain a category of variables called ‘Optional Variables.’ These variables are often specific to each MICA topic. Therefore, the presence and types of Optional Variables will vary between MICAs.

All Level Users

All Level Users will find the following Optional Variables available for the Inpatient Hospitalization MICA:

Pay Source

Inpatient hospitalization discharge records received by DHSS include information on the anticipated pay source for the visit. This may not reflect the source of payment finally used.

Registered Users

Registered Users will find the following additional Optional Variables available for the Inpatient Hospitalization MICA:

Disposition

Each hospital discharge record contains information about the disposition of the patient at the time of discharge, specifically the place where they have been discharged or transferred (i.e., long-term care, deceased, etc.).

Admission Month

Inpatient Hospitalization MICA allows queries to be run by month, as well as by year. Some trends related to diagnosis and discharge patterns are cyclical. For example, flu season runs from roughly October to May, detail that would be lost if a user looked only at annual rates of influenza discharges.