Pulse oximetry and supplemental oxygen use in nationwide Veterans Health Administration hospitals, 2013–2017: a Veterans Affairs Patient Database validation study

Abstract

Objective Extraction and standardisation of pulse oximetry and supplemental oxygen data from electronic health records has the potential to improve risk-adjustment, quality assessment and prognostication. We develop an approach to standardisation and report on its use for benchmarking purposes.Materials and methods Using electronic health record data from the nationwide Veteran’s Affairs healthcare system (2013–2017), we extracted, standardised and validated pulse oximetry and supplemental oxygen data for 2 765 446 hospitalisations in the Veteran’s Affairs Patient Database (VAPD) cohort study. We assessed face, concurrent and predictive validities using the following approaches, respectively: (1) evaluating the stability of patients’ pulse oximetry values during a 24-hour period, (2) testing for greater amounts of supplemental oxygen use in patients likely to need oxygen therapy and (3) examining the association between supplemental oxygen and subsequent mortality.Results We found that 2 700 922 (98%) hospitalisations had at least one pulse oximetry reading, and 864 605 (31%) hospitalisations received oxygen therapy. Patients monitored by pulse oximetry had a reading on average every 6 hours (median 4; IQR 3–7). Patients on supplemental oxygen were older, white and male compared with patients not receiving oxygen therapy (p<0.001) and were more likely to have diagnoses of heart failure and chronic pulmonary diseases (p<0.001). The amount of supplemental oxygen for patients with at least three consecutive values recorded during a 24-hour period fluctuated by median 2 L/min (IQR: 2–3), and 81% of such triplets showed the same level of oxygen receipt.Conclusion Our approach to standardising pulse oximetry and supplemental oxygen data shows face, concurrent and predictive validities as the following: supplemental oxygen clusters in the range consistent with hospital wall-dispensed oxygen supplies (face validity); there are greater amounts of supplemental oxygen for certain clinical conditions (concurrent validity) and there is an association of supplemental oxygen with in-hospital and postdischarge mortality (predictive validity).