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Question on CARE_SITE history

General
#1

Hello, I’m working on the extraction of data on CARE_SITE. I have a question on this, should I keep the history of the care site? If so, where should I store this information?

In my data source, the information on the care site is updated: some care site names have been changed, some care sites no longer exist. However, these obsolete data may be related to other data. If I keep only the most recent version of the care sites, I can not guarantee the consistency of data.

Do you have any ideas for this problem? Thank you.

#2

@YanZh

These are typical data warehouse questions. This is what I would recommend to do.

some care site names have been changed

These happen quite often these days as the healthcare industry consolidates, more and more merger and acquisition occurs. I would insert a new record into the Care_Site table. For example, if Princeton Hospital gets bought by Penn Medicine (actually happened recently), you can have both Princeton Hospital and Penn Medicine in the Care_Site table.

some care sites no longer exist

I would still keep this care site in the Care_Site table.

Please note that these are just my personal recommendations. Hopefully it aligns with the best practice of OHDSI.

#3

I would also suggest adding the new care_site name and not throw away old data if it is valid. Such data can still have value and use for retrospective studies regardless of whether a building is no longer there or changed its name.

The only data I would delete is that found to have errors. Otherwise if you are not hard pressed for storage space or other technical reasons - keep the data and add the change in care_site.

t