Contributors: Igor Engel, Sebastian Mate, Jan Christoph, Hans-Ulrich Prokosch, Thomas Ganslandt

Background

The §21 dataset is a German benchmarking dataset mandated by the law on hospital reimbursement (Paragraph 21: "Übermittlung und Nutzung von Daten - des Gesetzes über die Entgelte für voll- und teilstationäre Krankenhausleistungen" (Krankenhausentgeltgesetz - KHEntgG)). It is primarily used to derive the German inpatient billing system based on Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) and has to be provided by every German hospital on a yearly basis. It is thus supported by all hospital patient administration and billing systems established in Germany. Due to its standardization and high availability, the §21 dataset has been established as a source dataset for benchmarking projects and other regional and national collaborations. It is thus also an ideal candidate for a "quick win" i2b2 implementation, as its format is well-structured and documented and it can be produced easily by any German hospital, rapidly providing a functional prototype with local data.

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