What does a missing ICUSTAY_ID mean for the PRESCRIPTIONS table?

[afalis]

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If the ICUSTAY_ID for a HADM_ID is empty or '0,' does that mean the information is from a non-ICU area?

Specifically I'm looking at prescriptions. If a hospital admission has an order, but no ICU stay ID, does that mean the prescription was given on the floor? OR was ICU stay not required to be filled out?

I can't seem to find the answer to this in the online documentation. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks so much!!

[alistairewj]

You should not see any icustay_id or hadm_id with a value of 0.

This really depends on the table so I'll speak to prescriptions specifically. We assigned icustay_id to this table using their ICU admission/discharge time. If the row has an icustay_id, that means the prescription was made while the patient was in the ICU. However, because prescriptions often only have a date (and not a time), it's possible for inconsistencies related to dates vs. times. That is, a prescription to be made on 2120-01-01 for a patient in the ICU on 2120-01-01 14:00:00 could have been made for the patient while they were in the ICU, but it would not have an icustay_id.

hadm_id, on the other hand, are associated with the prescriptions in the raw data, and you can be sure if a prescription has an hadm_id it was made in the hospital.