Postal Code field

Data Element (edit)
Field Name:	PostalCode
CCMDB Label:	Postal Code
CCMDB tab:	Dispo
Table:	L_Log table
Data type:	string
Length:	6
Program:	Med and CC
Created/Raw:	Raw
Start Date:	2012-01-01
End Date:	2300-01-01
Sort Index:	33
Data Dependencies(Reports/Indicators/Data Elements):	No results

The patient's postal code.

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Legacy implementation right in the table

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The Postal_Code field can be edited in the Patient Viewer Tab Dispo. A postal code is collected for all patients admitted to a hospital within the WRHA. The postal code collected is from the address that a person permanently resides in any Province in Canada.

Collection Instruction

Enter the Postal code

• no space
• upper case letters
• example only: R0A0A0

Don't trust Postal Codes from Cognos

Don't trust the postal codes that come from Cognos2, we know that the codes in the data dump can be wrong anc change from day to day, and have been unable get a fix from Decision Support Services. Confirm Postal Codes in EPR and enter the code from EPR if different from Cognos.

"N/A"

Use this in the following scenarios where pts don't have Canadian style postal codes. You can click the "N/A" button to enter it for you to ensure standard spelling.

• for data use considerations see #N/A

"N/A" - homeless

Code "N/A" for homelesspatients.

this includes: homelessperson admitted who lists their address as Siloam Mission or the Salvation Army/Booth's Place, code as "N/A" Couch surfers, code as "N/A"

For #Data Use, this should often be grouped with "Winnipeg": most homeless are geographically located in Winnipeg, and the socioeconomic concept is already separately tracked in the Pre acute living situation field.

• for data use considerations see #N/A-homeless

"N/A" - John or Jane Doe patient

• for data use considerations see #N/A-JDoe

"N/A" - out-of-country resident

• our cross checks would flag the format of out-of-country postal codes, so enter "N/A" for these.

do we have a page for that to also include instructions about province etc. like we have for homeless...

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• for data use considerations see #N/A-notCanada

"N/A" - in-country resident

• there are cases where not homeless and province is in Canada (e.g. MB and non-MB) with N/A postal code entry
• for data use considerations see #N/A-Canada

Special Cases

Institutionalized patients

For institutionalized patients (e.g. Prison / Jail / Correctional Institution inmates, care homes), use the institution's postal code.

International Students

do we have a page for that to also include instructions about province etc. like we have for homeless...

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If they have an address in the Province, enter it, otherwise treat them as #"N/A" - out-of-country resident.

I understand the sentiment in the following, but this should either be rules or not mentioned at all, or it will cause confusion, since it would be relevant specifically in the edge cases when it would fall apart. So it might be better to address the specific edge cases and make a rule and cross check where relevant. Where this bears on data use, we should make sure we define once what we will check for and how we adjudicate or interpret inconsistencies, like we did for homeless patients. Ttenbergen 16:10, 11 July 2025 (CDT) Relationship between Province, PHIN and Postal code When collecting Postal Code, PHIN number and Province, think about the relationship of this information when you are collecting it. if patient has a MB PHIN number, then Province code should be MB and the postal code should be for MB (MB postal codes start with an "R"). if Province code is not MB then the postal code should not be a MB postal code. Enter "not applicable" or the out of province postal code if available, and also, there should not be a PHIN number.

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Data Use

Postal Codes are used group patients geographically for purposes such as:

• distribution of patients by Manitoba RHAss outside of Winnipeg
• linking to Stats Canada for socioeconomic stratification of population by geographic area
• Data Integrity Checks for the Province field for out-of-province patients via Postal Code Master table
• #Grouping by Geographical Area

Grouping by Geographical Area

Using the first three digits of the code, as done for Data definition for factor candidates for the Overstay2 project

MB

First Digit in ('R')

MB-Winnipeg

First two digits in ('R2', 'R3')

MB-Northern

First three digits in ('R0B','R8A','R8N','R9A')

MB-Rest

MB and not (MB-Wininpeg or MB-Northern)

ON-NorthWestern

• First three digits in ('P0X', 'P0Y', 'P0W', 'P9N', 'P8T', 'P8N', 'P9A')
  • P0X (Kenora Region)
  • P0Y (Whiteshell Park Region)
  • P0W (Rainy River Region)
  • Urban P9N (Kenora)
  • Urban P8T (Sioux Lookout)
  • Urban P8N (Dryden)
  • Urban P9A (Fort Frances)

N/A

Anyone with a

N/A-homeless

• patients collected as #"N/A" - homeless
• this should often be grouped with #MB-Winnipeg: most homeless are geographically located in Winnipeg, and the socioeconomic concept is already separately tracked in the Pre acute living situation field.

Data integrity for homeless patients

CCMDB have pre_acute_living_situation field homeless with Postal Code, should the Postal code be ignored and replaced by N/A. Should the R_Province entry be affected by Postal Code N/A? --JMojica 10:54, 24 June 2025 (CDT) We are currently reviewing some of the definitions of homelessness. It is possible that details will change as outcome from that. The concept has been broadened to include some ambiguous states and terminology changed to houselessness. Next meeting later this week about that. I don't expect that it would change instructions of how to code Postal Code; so, it makes sense to me to update vetted data for postal code to "N/A" if the Pre acute living situation is "homeless". Also, we have discussed whether it would be better to do this as an actual change in data, or as an logical change by function or encoded data in the Data Meaning Layer. Julie, you already do some other things in that layer to re-write data, if I interpret your SAS code correctly. Ttenbergen 17:11, 18 July 2025 (CDT)

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once this settles we should ensure we have Data Integrity Checks to flag entries like that (related: Community and Long Term Care Master List) Data definition for factor candidates for the Overstay2 project#??? is updated accordingly

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N/A-JDoe

• patients collected as #"N/A" - John or Jane Doe patient / John or Jane Doe patient
• this should often be grouped with #MB-Winnipeg: this group is tiny and the situation often arises in Winnipeg
• this situation often resolves later in an admission, so this may well be different in initial data than in vetted data

this is related to Minimal Data Set and when it's used... do we document this as a concept?

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N/A-Canada

• patients collected as #"N/A" - in-country resident
• if province is MB, this should be grouped with #MB-Rest .
• if province is not MB, this should be grouped with #Non_MB-Rest .

N/A-notCanada

• patients collected as #"N/A" - out-of-country resident
• this should almost always be grouped with #Non-MB-Rest since that is what it is.

Non-MB-Rest

• Any code not in the other categories above
• In use, this should often be grouped with #N/A-notCanada

SAS Program

The SAS macro code is in S:\MED\MED_CCMED\Julie\SAS_CFE\CFE_macros\PostalCode_AreaGroup.sas

Postal Code Master table

We cross-check this data against the Postal Code Master table and use it to group by RHA.

Data Integrity Checks (automatic list)

	App	Status
Check pre acute consistent	CCMDB.accdb	declined
Check Function Validate PostalCode	CCMDB.accdb	implemented
Query NDC Bad Postal Code	Centralized data front end.accdb	implemented
Query NDC Postal Code over time	Centralized data front end.accdb	implemented

Start/end Dates

Start Date: new admissions on and after January 1, 2012 End Date: None / Permanent Collection

Wikipedia Postal codes listings across Canada

Wikipedia, Postal codes in Canada

Legacy

Data started out being collected in the tmp field until June 1, 2016. The Postal Code from tmp populated the PostalCode field of Centralized_data on Jun 22, 2016.