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Definition

The scope of the Non-admitted patient emergency department care data set specification (NAPEDC DSS) is non-admitted patients registered for care in emergency departments in selected public hospitals that are classified as either Peer Group A or B in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's Australian Hospital Statistics publication from the preceding financial year. (See also Scope links with other metadata sets in the Comments section below.)

Patients who were dead on arrival are in scope if an emergency department clinician certified the death of the patient.

Patients who leave the emergency department after being triaged and then advised of alternative treatment options are in scope.

The scope includes only physical presentations to emergency departments. Advice provided by telephone or videoconferencing is not in scope, although it is recognised that advice received by telehealth may form part of the care provided to patients physically receiving care in the emergency department.

The care provided to patients in emergency departments is, in most instances, recognised as being provided to 'non-admitted' patients. Patients being treated in emergency departments may subsequently become 'admitted' (including admission to a short stay unit, admission to elsewhere in the emergency department, admission to another hospital ward, or admission to hospital-in-the-home). All patients remain in scope for this collection until they are recorded as having physically departed the emergency department, regardless of whether they have been admitted. For this reason there is an overlap in scope of this DSS and the Admitted patient care national minimum data set (APC NMDS).

Scope links with other metadata sets

Episodes of care for admitted patients are reported through the Admitted patient care NMDS.

National Health Reform Agreement—National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services

The scope for reporting against the National Emergency Access Target is all hospitals reporting to the Non-admitted patient emergency department care national minimum data set (NAPEDC NMDS) (Peer groups A, B and other) as at August 2011 (when the Agreement was signed). For the duration of the Agreement, hospitals that have not previously reported to the NAPEDC NMDS can come into scope, subject to agreement between the jurisdiction and the Commonwealth.

Metadata items in this Data Set Specification

Below is a list of all the components within this Dataset Specification.
Each entry includes the item name, whether the item is optional, mandatory or conditional and the maximum times the item can occur in a dataset.
If the items must occur in a particular order in the dataset, the sequence number is included before the item name.


Data Elements
Reference Data Element Data Type Length Inclusion #
Emergency department stay—physical departure date, DDMMYYYY Date/Time 8 mandatory 1
Emergency department stay—physical departure time, hhmm Date/Time 4 mandatory 1
Emergency department stay—presentation date, DDMMYYYY Date/Time 8 mandatory 1
Emergency department stay—presentation time, hhmm Date/Time 4 mandatory 1
Emergency department stay—type of visit to emergency department, code N - - mandatory 1
Emergency department stay—waiting time (to commencement of clinical care), total minutes NNNNN Number 5 mandatory 1
Episode of care—funding eligibility indicator (Department of Veterans' Affairs), code N - - conditional 1
Establishment—organisation identifier (Australian), NNX[X]NNNNN - - mandatory 1
Non-admitted patient emergency department service episode—episode end status, code N - - mandatory 1
Non-admitted patient emergency department service episode—service episode length, total minutes NNNNN Number 5 mandatory 1
Non-admitted patient emergency department service episode—triage category, code N Number 1 mandatory 1
Patient—compensable status, code N Number 1 mandatory 1
Person—area of usual residence, geographical location code (ASGC 2010) NNNNN - - mandatory 1
Person—country of birth, code (SACC 2008) NNNN - - conditional 1
Person: Date of Birth, DDMMYYYY
Specific Information:

This field must not be null.

National Minimum Data Sets:

For the provision of state and territory hospital data to Commonwealth agencies this field must:

  • be less than or equal to Admission date, Date patient presents or Service contact date
  • be consistent with diagnoses and procedure codes, for records to be grouped.
Date/Time 8 mandatory 1
Person—Indigenous status, code N Number 1 mandatory 1
Person—person identifier, XXXXXX[X(14)] - - mandatory 1
Person: Sex, Code N Number 1 mandatory 1

Comments

Guide for use:

The definition of a Short Stay Unit is as per clause C48 of the National Health Reform Agreement—National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services (NPA IPHS), as follows:

a) Designated and designed for the short term treatment, observation, assessment and reassessment of patients initially triaged and assessed in the emergency department (ED);

b) Have specific admission and discharge criteria and policies;

c) Designed for short term stays no longer than 24 hours;

d) Physically separated from the ED acute assessment area;

e) Have a static number of beds with oxygen, suction, patient ablution facilities; and

f) Not a temporary ED overflow area nor used to keep patients solely awaiting an inpatient bed nor awaiting treatment in the ED.

Comments:

Scope links with other metadata sets

Episodes of care for admitted patients are reported through the Admitted patient care NMDS.

National Health Reform Agreement—National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services

The scope for reporting against the National Emergency Access Target is all hospitals reporting to the Non-admitted patient emergency department care national minimum data set (NAPEDC NMDS) (Peer groups A, B and other) as at August 2011 (when the Agreement was signed). For the duration of the Agreement, hospitals that have not previously reported to the NAPEDC NMDS can come into scope, subject to agreement between the jurisdiction and the Commonwealth.

References

Related content

Relation Count
As a numerator in an Indicator 0
As a denominator in an Indicator 0
As a disaggregation in an Indicator 0