Q: Are Delivery Room Deaths (DRDs) submitted as part of the CPQCC All NICU Admissions Database?

A: Delivery Room Deaths (DRDs) are not submitted as part of the CPQCC All NICU Admissions Database. By definition, DRDs were never admitted to the NICU, and therefore cannot be part of this database. 

Q: Do the reference numbers / IDs have to be based on birth year?

A: The reference numbers can be assigned in any way desired.  However, they should be distinct for each infant / stay. Your NICU's data are actually stored in one data file, which is indexed based on the reference numbers and re-admission counter (if used by your NICU). Therefore - similar to the CPQCC ID number - you may not repeat reference numbers for different birth years or admission years.

Q: Is it possible to upload EDS files for more than one birth year at a time?

A: Yes. For the EDS upload, all birth years greater than or equal to 2016 are acceptable. When you are browsing your data through using the on-line NICU Admissions Database browser, data are always organized by year of birth as this reflects the CCS form unit by which NICU admissions are "counted."

Q: How do I code an infant that is born at my hospital, admitted to the NICU, transferred to another unit of the hospital, then re-admitted to the NICU?

A: The specifications for the CPQCC All NICU Admissions DB is supposed to be flexible enough to decide for yourself how to handle this situation. Depending on how you prefer to track your NICU admissions, you have two options:


Option 1:

You can represent this infant as multiple rows in your data and report each transfer within your hospital as a separate row. In this case, you can use the categories that reflect transfers within your hospital to describe the NICU admission flow. In this example, an infant inborn at your hospital, then admitted to the well-baby unit after birth, then admitted to the NICU as a transfer from the well-baby unit, then transferred back to the well-baby unit, then transferred back to the NICU, would be described in the data as follows:

Row 1:

atype=1: Inborn never home admitted from another unit within my hospital

disp=4: Transfer-out to another unit within my hospital

Row 2:

    atype=110: Re-admitted from another unit within my hospital (continuing care episode)

    disp=4: Transfer-out to another unit within my hospital


Option 2:

You can represent this infant as one row in your spreadsheet and report all data in that row as cumulative until the infant leaves your hospital. In this case, the discharge date should correspond to the date when the infant left your hospital and the disposition should reflect the infant's disposition on that day.


Choosing this option has two disadvantages:

  • You will not be able to correctly capture the total number of patient days in your NICU for CCS form Section E.
  • Your NICU Admissions Database cannot be used to describe the occupancy of your NICU beds on any given day.

Q: A record for the first admission and 3 readmissions was entered, but the birth date entered is wrong. How is this situation fixed?

To update the birth date in this situation, open the first (base) record for this infant for editing.

Correct the birth date and admission date and click on Update.


The background update that occurs, updates all 4 records, however, this update does not show in the table since the table can only handle one row update at a time:

In order to see that the database was updated, reload the database fresh from the All NICU Admissions DB link in the navigation bar. Once you reload the table, the correction for all 4 records shows up:

Q: What occurs of multiple users from my NICU access the All NICU Admissions Database at the same time?

A: It is possible that multiple users from the same NICU can access the All NICU Admissions Database at the same time. However, unless a user refreshes the database from the link on the navigation bar, other users' edits will not be apparent. 


If your NICU chooses to automatically generate the next [refnum] for a newly added NICU admission, data entry of 2 or more different NICU admissions by 2 or more different users will all be honored and get different reference numbers.


We currently do not have an access notice in place (similar to CPQCC), but if need be, this access notice can be added. We recommend that if multiple users access the NICU admissions DB at the same time that you regularly refresh the database from the navigation bar link.

Q: Can I track other items that are important to me with this database?

A: If you choose the on-line NICU Admissions database to track your NICU admissions, we currently offer the [admtnotes] field to allow capturing other information relevant for you.


If this one field is not sufficient for your needs, you can generate a spreadsheet that meets the requirements of the NICU Admissions Database, but includes additional fields. As outlines in Section Uploading a CSV File with NICU Admissions, when uploading NICU Admissions through the EDS upload mechanism as a CSV files, any additional variables are dropped.

Q: How is the All NICU Admissions Database backed up?

A: The All NICU Admissions Database is backed up once daily shortly after midnight. CPQCC also maintains an archive that allows the tracking of all database updates.


We strongly recommend that you regularly download your All NICU Admissions Database through the CSV option provided allowing you to keep your own database backup locally.

Q: The edit and delete buttons are gray/not functional. How can I edit or complete entries?

A: To edit a record shown in the NICU Admissions Database table, the record has to be highlighted by clicking on it; then Edit in the top left area of the display has to be clicked.