New York CODES Project | NEW YORK |
---|
PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) required NHTSA to
analyze the safety benefits of safety belt and motorcycle helmet laws. To do this, NHTSA
would need to be able to link information about individual crashes to hospital records in order to
determine the relationship between safety belt and helmet use and injury severity and medical
costs. NHTSA found that this information was not accessible in most states because there were
no linkages between traffic records and hospital records. The Crash Outcome Data Evaluation
System (CODES) was established to encourage states to establish these linkages in order to
conduct their own analysis of relationships between crash, vehicle and driver characteristics, and
medical outcomes. New York was one of seven states awarded a special grant to establish a
CODES program.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The goal of the CODES project in New York was to create linkages between state data files for
police crash reports, emergency medical services, hospital emergency departments, hospital
discharge files, insurance claims and other sources in order to support highway safety and public
health decision-making.
STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
An initial step in the CODES project was the establishment of a CODES Advisory Committee,
comprised of the data owners (e.g. hospitals, the Department of Transportation) and others
interested in analyzing the linked data. These committee members had to be convinced that the
New York CODES Project (cont'd)
goal of linking their records would benefit their organizations, as well as improve the quality of
data analysis at the state and national levels.
Once a cooperative relationship was established, attention was focused on identifying common
data fields, creating more uniform data definitions, and identifying missing or incomplete data.
The CODES software then made it possible to trace the records for a crash victim through the
health care system in order to determine the types of injuries sustained, the short and long-term
care required, the costs for this care and the source of payment for resulting treatment.
RESULTS
In addition to responding to NHTSA's request for safety belt and motorcycle helmet information,
New York State was able to use the linked data for several other important state-level analyses:
Using the linked data system, New York determined that, in one year, approximately 140,000 individuals received medical treatment for a motor vehicle related injury, even though there was no record that either the crash had been reported or that an injury was recorded on an existing police report. This number represents 23 percent of all motor vehicle-related injuries.