Data Quality & Completeness Flashcards

A registrar is reviewing a case where the operative report, pathology report, and physician's notes all document different primary sites. Which source should take priority for coding primary site?

Answer: The pathology report, as it provides the most definitive tissue diagnosis

Pathology reports provide microscopic confirmation of the primary site and take precedence over clinical impression documents when there is a discrepancy.

What is the purpose of the NAACCR Call for Data in the context of data quality?

Answer: To collect standardized, quality-checked data from state registries for national analytic databases

The NAACCR Call for Data is an annual request for standardized submissions to build national datasets, requiring data that has passed quality edits.

A hospital registry's reabstraction audit shows a 15% discrepancy rate in T category coding. This rate exceeds the acceptable benchmark. The MOST appropriate response is to:

Answer: Conduct root cause analysis, retrain staff, and correct affected records

Root cause analysis identifies whether errors stem from unclear guidelines, training gaps, or documentation issues, enabling targeted corrective action.

Which of the following is a characteristic of a 'date flag' in the NAACCR data standard?

Answer: It indicates the reason a date field is blank or unknown

Date flags accompany date fields to document why the date is missing (e.g., unknown, not applicable), providing context for blank date values.

Under STORE manual guidelines, which scenario requires the registrar to submit a correction to a previously submitted case?

Answer: A subsequent pathology report changes the histology to a more specific code

New pathologic information that changes a coded field requires the registry to update and resubmit the corrected record to maintain data accuracy.

A CTR is preparing an annual report and notices that cases diagnosed in the last quarter of the year have significantly fewer lymph node data items completed compared to earlier quarters. This most likely reflects:

Answer: A timeliness issue where recent cases have not yet had all reports finalized

Incomplete data for recently diagnosed cases is commonly due to pending reports that have not yet been filed or abstracted.

Which of the following best describes 'concurrent abstraction' as a data quality strategy?

Answer: Abstracting cases while the patient is still receiving treatment to capture data prospectively

Concurrent abstraction involves registrars reviewing and coding cases while patients are still in the system, improving data completeness and timeliness.