Postal Code field

The Postal_Code field in the Dispo tab contains the postal code of the patient. 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: X0X0X0

When the postal code is not available (e.g. John/Jane Doe or chart doesn't have postal code) enter "N/A" or click the "N/A" button to enter it for you.

Special Cases

Homeless with proxy address

If you have a homeless person admitted who lists their address as Siloam Mission or the Salvation Army/Booth's Place, use their postal code as provided.

Code "couch surfers" as "N/A".

Institutionalized patients

For institutionalized patients (e.g. prison inmates, care homes), use the institution's postal code.

Out-of-Country patients

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

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 and also, there should not be an PHIN number.

Data Use

The most common use for postal codes is for researchers to link to Stats Canada for economic status and to for us to get a distribution of patients by MB RHAs outside of Winnipeg. It’s also a cross-check on Province for out-of-province patients. - Randy Martens - Sept 11.15. Data is used for socioeconomic stratification of population by geographic area.

Template:CCMDB Data Integrity Checks

Implemented:

• will reject empty field
• will reject invalid postal code

CFE-Postal code cross check

Main office weekly data check. data vetting process.

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

• at the top of the article shows the the first letter that a postal code starts with for a province.

Map showing first letter used in postal codes across Canada

Legacy

Data started out being collected in the tmp field.