Concepts and Terminology > Attribution Types

Overview

Attribution Types are a type of 'system tables', e.g. Practitioner, Department, and Unit. This document describes what an Attribution Type is and its components. To create your own Attribution Type see Managing Attribution Types. Once created, Attribution Types need to be linked to Worksheet Fields from Managing Worksheet Fields so that it can be used for data entry.

Describe

PDA Professional comes with a few predefined Attribution Types and allows you to define more on your own. Individual values in Attribution Types are called Attribution Type Objects and can be managed from Managing Attribution Type Objects e.g. the Attribution Type Department may have objects like Medicine, Surgery, OB/GYN, Pediatrics, etc.

Whenever you have table values which can be pre-defined it is better to create an Attribution Type for them rather then defining a free form text field. By defining an Attribution Type instead of free-form text field you save time in data entry and prevent data entry errors by selecting from a table of values rather than entering free form text. For example, different users can enter the same information differently 'Jon' and 'John' for the same person. If this was established as an Attribution Type, they would select either 'Jon', or 'John' from a pre-defined table of values.

Attribution Types can have properties that are like its attributes, e.g. Practitioner can have properties like ID, Department, and Specialty. Learn more about them at Attribution Properties.

Facility and User are special Attribution Types. To learn more about them select Facility and User. The Attribution Type 'DRG' is also system defined and you cannot add, delete, or modify objects from it. These are automatically updated with the release of new upgrades.

Components

oQuick Property: When performing data entry, part of the description can be entered to search for an Attribution Type Object. This search can also be performed by entering the Quick Property. As the system is user-defined, you are free to choose any property as a Quick Property; typically it is set to ID. The Quick Property defined as ID will also display the ID in the Analyzer Results when Selecting Data Analyzer Parameters

oWhen performing data entry the Quick Property needs to be entered in full, i.e., if a practitioner 'Robert Langdon' has an ID of 0345, it can be pulled only by entering 0345 not by 345 or 034, whereas description can be searched by just entering Rob or R.

oCreate on Fly: New Attribution Type Objects can be created from Managing Attribution Type Objects. However, if you want to create new objects at the time of data entry, you can set this flag to 'Yes' and enter the value as you are completing data entry and the new value will be added to the Attribution Type.