Care Site

Epic equivalent: Facility / Department IDs / Clinic names / Cost center groupings

The care_site table represents physical locations or organizational units where care is delivered — hospitals, clinics, departments, specialty units, and service lines. In Epic, this maps to facility and department IDs used in scheduling and encounter metadata.

care_site_id is referenced by visit_occurrence, person, and provider to indicate where care was delivered.

Epic-to-OMOP Field Mapping

Field reference (click to expand)

OMOP Field	Epic Equivalent	What It Captures
care_site_id	Department / Facility ID	Unique identifier
care_site_name	Clinic / facility name	Human-readable name (e.g., "Emory Winship Cancer Center")
place_of_service_concept_id	Setting type	Standardized concept: inpatient hospital, outpatient clinic, etc.
location_id	Physical address	Foreign key to location table
care_site_source_value	Local care site code	Original ID (e.g., CLARITY_DEPARTMENT_ID)
place_of_service_source_value	Raw POS string	Local text ("ED", "Ambulatory", etc.)

What to Watch For

Common pitfalls

Granularity varies

Some data models use departments as care sites; others use whole facilities. Know what your data contains.

Not all visits link to a care site

Especially for billing or claims-derived data. Validate completeness before filtering on care_site_id.

Use location for geospatial work

care_site is the logical unit. location (via location_id) provides the physical address and coordinates.

Research Patterns

Question	Tables Involved
Patients seen at the main cancer center	visit_occurrence.care_site_id + care_site_name
Hypertension control rates by primary care clinic	measurement + visit_occurrence + care_site_id
Procedure volume by surgical department	procedure_occurrence + visit_occurrence.care_site_id
Geocoding care delivery locations	care_site.location_id + location.latitude/longitude
Readmission rates by care site	visit_occurrence.care_site_id + readmission logic