About HQI’s Sentinel Signal Detection System Report
HQI’s sentinel signal detection system automatically detects abnormal changes (i.e., signals) in the incidence of diagnosis categories from hospital encounter records in the Hospital Quality Improvement Platform (HQIP). Every quarter, HQI aggregates these signals across reporting hospitals to provide a statewide perspective.
In Q1 2024, flu season continues, and allergy season begins. Hospitals this quarter signal for screenings for infectious agents, parasitic diseases, Influenza virus, other viral infections, and inflammation of the lungs, sinuses, and ears. This period also includes signals for patients with limited access to healthcare and those on chronic medications. Signals for novel bacterial infections such as scarlet fever and valley fever (coccidiomycosis) emerged. Notably, a signal was detected for patients with heart abnormalities (tachycardia, palpitations or bradycardia).
HQIP provides hospital leaders with the capability to review the latest signals for their organization each quarter. In this report, these signals are aggregated across reporting hospitals and provided as counts representing a statewide signal.
As an example, consider these results for the ICD-10 category Z20:
The ICD-10 category represents all ICD-10 codes that begin with these three characters.
The Positive column gives the number of reporting hospitals that had a statistically significant increase in the count of codes in this ICD-10 category for this quarter (i.e., the count of positive signals).
The Negative column gives the number of reporting hospitals that had a statistically significant decrease in the count of codes in this ICD-10 category for this quarter (i.e., the count of negative signals).
The Neutral column gives the number of reporting hospitals that did not see a statistically significant change in the count of codes in this ICD-10 category this quarter.
The Net Signal Value provided is the absolute difference between the number of Positive and Negative signals. The absolute difference is the difference between the two with a positive sign; a Positive Signal count of 20 and a Negative Signal count of 12 would lead to a Net Signal Value of 8 (as would a Positive Signal count of 12 and a Negative Signal count of 20).
The Description gives the text overview associated with this ICD-10 category.
The # category provides a bar chart with the quarterly counts of ICD-10 codes within this category among reporting hospitals. Hovering over each bar with a mouse cursor will provide a tooltip with the quarterly counts.