Comparison of the Victorian emergency minimum dataset (VEMD) human intent coding descriptor to medical records in discriminating suicide attempts for emergency presentations to Eastern Health Psychiatric Triage, Victoria, Australia.
Background: Administrative health data are widely used for suicide attempt surveillance yet concerns remain about accuracy. The Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) Human Intent Descriptor is an administrative coding system for classifying self-harm and suicidality in emergency department (ED)...
| Publicado en: | Health Information Management Journal Vol. 55; no. 3; pp. 426 - 433 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Sage Publications Inc.
Sep2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=196885283&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 196885283 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 18333583 YWP jtl: Health Information Management Journal issn: 18333583 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Sep2026 vid: 55 iid: 3 pid: 344 pub: Sage Publications Inc. place: Thousand Oaks, California artinfo: ui: 196885283 187735412 196885283 196885283 10.1177/18333583251360616 196885283 ppf: 426 ppct: 7 formats: tig: atl: Comparison of the Victorian emergency minimum dataset (VEMD) human intent coding descriptor to medical records in discriminating suicide attempts for emergency presentations to Eastern Health Psychiatric Triage, Victoria, Australia. aug: au: Hang, Tianqi Innes, Stanley Hope, Judith affil: Adult Mental Health and Wellbeing Program, Eastern Health, Australia sug: subj: Suicide, Attempted Diagnosis Suicide, Attempted Classification Clinical Assessment Tools Instrument Validation Minimum Data Set Medical Records Data Quality Evaluation Coding Triage Emergency Medical Services Human Victoria Comparative Studies Cross Sectional Studies Validation Studies Hospitals, Psychiatric Sensitivity and Specificity Predictive Validity kappa Statistic ROC Curve Discriminant Validity Descriptive Statistics False Negative Results Mental Health Services Health Information Management Confidence Intervals ab: Background: Administrative health data are widely used for suicide attempt surveillance yet concerns remain about accuracy. The Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) Human Intent Descriptor is an administrative coding system for classifying self-harm and suicidality in emergency department (ED) presentations. This study evaluates its accuracy in detecting suicide attempts by comparing it to clinician-applied Columbia Classification Algorithm of Suicide Assessment (C-CASA) ratings from medical records. Method: This cross-sectional validation study examined 607 ED presentations referred to psychiatric triage across three hospitals in August 2020. C-CASA classifications were compared with corresponding VEMD Human Intent Descriptor data. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, and Cohen's kappa were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves assessed overall discrimination. Results: The VEMD descriptor demonstrated high specificity (99.0%) but low sensitivity (25.0%–27.3%), indicating many false negatives. The ROC analysis showed poor discriminatory ability (area under the curve = 0.62–0.63). Forty percent of missed cases were captured in ED diagnoses, highlighting gaps in coding accuracy. Conclusion: While the VEMD descriptor reliably confirms suicide attempts, its poor sensitivity limits its utility for surveillance. Findings underscore the need for improved coding protocols and alternative detection strategies to enhance suicide attempt surveillance in ED settings. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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