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Definition

The total number of occasions of examination, consultation, treatment or other service provided to a patient in a medical/surgical/diagnostic unit of a health service establishment not defined elsewhere. Each diagnostic test or simultaneous set of related diagnostic tests for the one patient referred to a hospital pathology department consists of one occasion of service.

Components

Data Element (this item)

Representation

This representation is based on the value domain for this data element, more information is available at " Total occasions of service N[NNNNNN] ".
Data Type Number
Format N[NNNNNN]
Maximum character length 7

Comments

Guide for use:

For any occasion of service to a non-admitted patient given at a designated unit primarily responsible for the provision of medical/surgical or diagnostic services which have not already been covered in other data elements.

Other medical/surgical/diagnostic services include:

  • electrocardiogram (ECG)
  • obstetrics
  • nuclear medicine
  • general medicine
  • general surgery
  • fertility etc.

This metadata item identifies types of services provided to non-admitted patients in different institutional ways in different systems. It is not a summary casemix classification.

A patient who first contacts the hospital and receives non-admitted care, for example through emergency departments, and is subsequently admitted, should have both components of care enumerated separately. Where possible, non-admitted occasions of service that are provided to patients who are subsequently admitted should be identified as a subset of the total occasions of service.

The list of Type of non-admitted patient care categories was to be developed using typical functional units or cost centres within existing institutions. These would include designated wards or departments and specialised clinics. Although the current statistical/financial returns submitted to the various health authorities by their hospitals do not provide a minimum subset, an effort has been made to define the categories in respect to those areas commonly collected. Many functional units provide services to both admitted patients and non-admitted patients, for example pathology. Only occasions of service for non-admitted patients should be included in this section.

References

Related content

Relation Count
Input in Derivations 0
Output in Derivations 0
Inclusion in Data Set Specifications 10
Inclusion in Data Distributions 0
As a numerator in an Indicator 3
As a denominator in an Indicator 0
As a disaggregation in an Indicator 0