How well do algorithms and definitions identify heart failure using administrative and claims data?
Administrative data algorithms perform well for identifying heart failure, especially when using primary hospital discharge diagnoses, and sensitivity can be improved by including outpatient codes.
The algorithms and definitions used to identify HF using administrative and claims data perform well, particularly when using a primary hospital discharge diagnosis. Attention should be paid to whether patients who are managed on an outpatient basis are included in the study sample. Including outpatient codes in the described algorithms would increase the sensitivity for identifying new cases of HF.
Saczynski et al. (2012) studied this question.