Data Elements for Emergency Department Systems - Release 1.0 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1997, 274 p.): SECTION 1 - PATIENT IDENTIFICATION DATA: 1.04 DATE OF BIRTH

Data Elements for Emergency Department Systems - Release 1.0 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1997, 274 p.)

SECTION 1 - PATIENT IDENTIFICATION DATA

		1.01 INTERNAL ID
		1.02 NAME
		1.03 ALIAS
		1.04 DATE OF BIRTH
		1.05 SEX
		1.06 RACE
		1.07 ETHNICITY
		1.08 ADDRESS
		1.09 TELEPHONE NUMBER
		1.10 ACCOUNT NUMBER
		1.11 SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER
		1.12 OCCUPATION
		1.13 INDUSTRY
		1.14 EMERGENCY CONTACT NAME
		1.15 EMERGENCY CONTACT ADDRESS
		1.16 EMERGENCY CONTACT TELEPHONE NUMBER
		1.17 EMERGENCY CONTACT RELATIONSHIP

1.04 DATE OF BIRTH

Definition

Patient’s date of birth.

Uses

Date of birth can be used to calculate the patient’s age, to distinguish between patients with the same name, and to provide discriminatory power in probabilistic linkage of patient records.

Discussion

Time can be included for newborns. Date of birth can be estimated from the patient’s age (see method recommended under TS - time stamp in the Technical Notes at the end of this document).

Data Type (and Field Length)

TS - time stamp (26).

Repetition

No.

Field Values

Year, month, and day of birth are entered in the format YYYYMMDD. For example, a birth date of August 12, 1946, would be encoded as 19460812. Date and time of birth are entered in the format YYYYMMDDHHMM. For example, a birth at 10:30 pm on June 1, 1997, would be encoded as 199706012230.

Data Standards or Guidelines

E1384-96 (ASTM, 1996) and Health Level 7, Version 2.3 (HL7, 1996).

Other References

None.