No Strings Attached

How to Leverage String Fields in NSSP Data

Ever notice fields in NSSP Completeness DQ reports that begin with “str_”? What are these fields? We call them “string fields.” These fields are populated with exactly what came in the message. There are associated columns that store data pulled from the string fields, and those data may be converted to a particular format such as datetime. Put another way… a column that supports a date and time has a “string” column that stores data exactly as reported and has another column formatted as datetime2 to store the date time in an actual datetime format. For example, str_admit_date_time stores exactly what was reported, and admit_date_time stores the data in “datetime2” format. If you find “str” fields have high completeness but their associated fields have low completeness, this indicates a format issue with the data in the HL7 message.