Data Collection
The Hospital Inpatient Enquiry (HIPE) collects demographic, clinical and
administrative data on discharges from acute public hospitals in
Ireland. Data are extracted from medical charts or records and coded
according to ICD-10 by trained clinical coders.
Patients were deemed to have an unplanned VLU related admission if they
had any non-elective admission, to any hospital within the Saolta group,
with an appropriate primary diagnosis code over the period July
2014-July 2018. The codes for venous ulcer include “Varicose veins of
lower extremities with ulcer”, and “Varicose veins of lower
extremities with both ulcer and inflammation”.
Phlebitis alone without ulceration, and varicose veins without
ulceration, are both coded elsewhere in the ICD-10 and were excluded.
The two years immediately prior to the introduction of the one-stop see
and treat clinic (July 2014 to June 2016) served as the control period.
Data on the clinic’s activity was gathered by a combination of
prospective documentation as well as retrospective chart review for
earlier patients.