You are a registered health information technician (RHIT) who works in the information systems department. You have extensive health information management (HIM) experience as well as information systems experience. You tend to get projects related to HIM due to your background. Your next assignment is to create a data dictionary that will be used for data collection in the new MPI at your hospital. Your HIM background kicks in when you see the data quality issues in the instructions that you are provided with. Administration has told you that the data elements collected in Table 3-2 will be used to manage data collection in your new computerized MPI. Each row indicates one field; the format column tells how the data should be formatted and the number field is the number of characters the field should allow. Analyze this information and identify possible problems with the way the fields would be entered into the system. Make recommendations on how to improve the information, including missing data elements, inappropriate data elements, ways to build quality into the system, ways to improve data collection, and so on. You have also been instructed to ensure that the data elements meet Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Set requirements.

Question: Analyze the information (in Table 3-2 below) and identify possible problems with the way the fields would be entered into the system. Make recommendations on how to improve the information, including missing data elements, inappropriate data elements, ways to build quality into the system, and ways to improve data collection. You have also been instructed to ensure that the data elements meet Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Set requirements.

TABLE 3-2 Field Properties

Field Properties
Field	Format	Number of Characters
Name	FN MI LN (alpha)	25
Address	Alpha	25
City, state, zip	Alphanumeric	25
Discharge date	Numeric	6
Admission date	Numeric	6
Discharge disposition	01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 20	2
Service	Alpha	3
Date of birth	Numeric	6
Race	b, w, h	2
Gender	m, f, u	1
Ethnicity	Hispanic/non- Hispanic	1