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lab unit

lab_unt
clinical·Updated Jun 23, 2026

Definition

ISO-11179 Definition

Standard unit of measure associated with a laboratory result value, such as mg/dL, mmol/L, or cells/uL, in EHR and LIS systems. Mapped to UCUM standards during FHIR-based data normalization to ensure consistency across source systems in clinical data warehouse pipelines.

Standard Abbreviation

lab_unt

Category

clinical

Production DDL — FACT_CLINICAL_EVENT

FACT_CLINICAL_EVENT.sql
CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE FACT_CLINICAL_EVENT (
    clin_evt_key  INTEGER        NOT NULL  -- surrogate key,
    mbr_key       INTEGER        NOT NULL  -- FK to DIM_MEMBER,
    prvdr_key     INTEGER        NOT NULL  -- FK to DIM_PROVIDER,
    diag_cd       VARCHAR(10)              -- ICD-10 diagnosis code,
    hcc_cd        VARCHAR(10)              -- HCC category code,
    proc_cd       VARCHAR(10)              -- procedure code,
    svc_dt        DATE                     -- service date,
    pos_cd        VARCHAR(2)               -- place of service,
    raf_scr       DECIMAL(10,3)            -- RAF score,
    admit_dt      DATE                     -- admission date,
    dsch_dt       DATE                     -- discharge date,
    drg_cd        VARCHAR(10)              -- DRG code,
    los_days      SMALLINT                 -- length of stay,
    readmt_ind    CHAR(1)                  -- readmission indicator,
    load_dt       TIMESTAMP_NTZ  NOT NULL  -- load timestamp
);

Standard Snowflake DDL for the canonical clinical table. Convert to BigQuery or Databricks →

Why This Term Matters

Clinical terms are the building blocks of risk adjustment, quality measurement, and value-based care analytics. A data engineer who understands this terminology can design schemas that correctly capture patient conditions, procedures, and encounters — enabling accurate HCC scoring, HEDIS measure attribution, and CMS reporting. Misclassifying clinical fields in a data warehouse cascades into incorrect RAF scores and failed regulatory submissions.

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