Format

Date (ddmmccyy)

Field length

8

Priority

Mandatory

Definition

The date on which a person was born or is officially deemed to have been born as recorded on their birth certificate.

Recording rules

1. Date of birth should be entered as follows:
   • 9 February 1942 is entered as 0 9 0 2 1 9 4 2
2. All dates must consist of eight digits by entering preceding zeros for single digits in day, month or year.
3. When only the patients age is available, year of birth should be calculated and day and month infilled with zero. For example:
   • age 25 (in 1999) would mean that the year of birth is (1999-25) = 1974 and should be entered as 0 0 0 0 1 9 7 4
4. Age not known- if all avenues have been explored and neither date of birth nor age is available then the clinicians or nursing staff's estimate of age should be used to calculate year of birth. If this is not possible, refer to your Medical Records Manager. For example:
   • estimated age 27 (in 1999) would mean that the estimated year of birth is (1999-27) = 1972 and should be entered as 0 0 0 0 1 9 7 2

Points to note

1. The Date of Birth is allocated 8 digits to record the full year of birth.

Cross checks

1. Age (and consequently the Date of Birth) is an important data item and is used in a number of cross-checks. For example:
   • Specialty
   • Diagnoses
   • Admission /Transfer From
   • Discharge/ Transfer To
   • Referral Received Date (SMR00 Only)
2. Date of Birth is also checked to be in sequence with the other dates recorded. To view sequence of dates checks please refer to Date Sequences
3. Date of Birth must be less than date of admission for all record types (except SMR01, where Date of Birth can equal date of admission when Significant Facility is 11 or 16).
4. Date of Birth may equal date of clinic or date of referral for SMR00.
5. SMR01 and 04, and age on admission is greater than 100 years, the record will be queried
6. If record is SMR02, and age on admission is less than 10 or greater than 50, the record will be queried.
7. If record is SMR04, and age on admission is less than 1 year, the record will be queried.
8. For SMR01 where specialty is AB (Geriatrics), and age on admission is less than 49 and Significant Facility is not 18, the record will be queried.
9. If record type is SMR01 and Specialty is AF (Paediatrics), CA (Paediatric Surgery) or D8 (Paediatric Dentistry), and age on admission is 18 or over, the record will be queried
10. Age is also checked with diagnoses. For example:
    • Senile Dementia: the current check will generate a query if the patient is less than 55 years of age.
    • Similarly, childhood diagnoses will generate a query if the patient is greater than 16 years of age.

SMR validation

Read about SMR validation.