Introduction

A number of methods have been used over time for identification of individuals resident in Manitoba. The choice of method is based on the question being asked.

To determine residency, both postal codes and municipal codes can be used. Usually, residence is determined by data available in the Manitoba Health Insurance Registry data, but other data sources that contain postal code and municipal codes can be used.

1. Postal Code Only

This method captures most residents of Manitoba, including those who may not be registered with Manitoba Health. There is no verification that the individual can be assigned to a Manitoba Health region. This is the most commonly used method, but users should consider the second option. To keep only Manitoba residents, look for those postal codes starting with the appropriate letter -- "R".

This method may miss people who still live in Manitoba, if their regional number links them to their families who live out of province (and thus giving the person who lives in Manitoba an out of province postal code). A small number of individuals who live within Manitoba but have an out-of-Manitoba postal code (more common along Saskatchewan border) will also be missed.

This method is still preferable, for most cases, to the old way of using municipal code (before postal code was available). Often, after postal codes are excluded, there are still some out-of-province municipal codes left. It is up to the programmer and the PI to decide what to do with those records.

2. Postal Code, Municipal Code

This method captures most residents of Manitoba but also insures that the location of residence is known. If the residence can not be determined, they are excluded. In this case all Manitoba postal codes are retained, in an attempt to assign a location to those with a 900 municipal code (non-resident or possibly non-registered). With the exception of Winnipeg community areas, municipal code is generally used to identify the location of residence within Manitoba. See the concepts on Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) in Manitoba for information on areas of Manitoba and Various Areas of Winnipeg for information on areas in Winnipeg.

3. Municipal Code

The existence of a non-900 municipal code has been used to identify the patient's residence status. Work done in 1991 by Doug Tataryn showed that there were inconsistencies between municipal code and postal code locations, and the decision was made that postal codes provided a better method of determining if someone was actually in Manitoba.

When using muncode to determine location of residence, users should be aware of A-code municipal codes, which are associated with First Nations Bands not with actual locations.

Users must be aware that there is a distinction between residence in Manitoba and coverage. If there is interest in coverage within Manitoba Health, then the existence of a non-0 PHIN or the existence of a registration number (REGNO) / REGNO_CODE) must be used.