+++
date = "2015-09-01T19:34:46-04:00"
title = "The cptevents table"
linktitle = "CPTEVENTS"
weight = 14
toc = "true"

+++

Table source: Hospital database.

Table purpose: Contains current procedural terminology (CPT) codes, which facilitate billing for procedures performed on patients.

Number of rows: 573146

Links to:

• PATIENTS on SUBJECT_ID
• ADMISSIONS on HADM_ID

Brief summary

The CPTEVENTS table contains a list of which current procedural terminology codes were billed for which patients. This can be useful for determining if certain procedures have been performed (e.g. ventilation).

Important considerations

• The respiratory cost center bills for ventilation regardless of duration. That means that 30 minutes of mechanical ventilation for a single day would result in same billing code as a full 24 hours of mechanical ventilation.
• Non-invasive ventilation and mechanical ventilation use the same CPT code. Differentiating these concepts requires selecting them using the DESCRIPTION column.

Table columns

Detailed Description

CPTEVENTS contains current procedural terminology (CPT) codes for patients as billed through either the ICU cost center or the respiratory cost center. Each code represents a distinct procedure performed on the patient during their ICU stay.

SUBJECT_ID, HADM_ID

Identifiers which specify the patient: SUBJECT_ID is unique to a patient and HADM_ID is unique to a patient hospital stay.

COSTCENTER

COSTCENTER is the cost center which billed for the corresponding CPT codes. There are two possible cost centers: 'ICU' and 'Resp'. 'Resp' codes correspond to mechanical or non-invasive ventilation and were billed by the respiratory therapist. 'ICU' codes correspond to the procedures billed for by the ICU.

CHARTDATE

The date at which the procedure occurred.

CPT_CD, CPT_NUMBER, CPT_SUFFIX

CPT_CD contains the original CPT code. CPT_NUMBER is a numeric version of the CPT_CD column, which allows for easier range comparisons in querying. However, note not all CPT_CD are fully numeric. The CPT_SUFFIX column contains the text suffix when the CPT_CD contains non-numeric characters.

TICKET_ID_SEQ

The order of the CPT_CD.

SECTIONHEADER, SUBSECTIONHEADER

The section headers provide a category for the given CPT code. These headers were assigned using the D_CPT table.

DESCRIPTION

In the case of a CPT_CD corresponding to the respiratory cost center, the description provides information about the meaning of the CPT code. Otherwise, the field is null.