National hospital morbidity data collection

National hospital morbidity database (NHMD)

• The NHMD is compiled from data supplied by the state and territory health authorities. It is a collection of electronic confidentialised summary records for separations (that is, episodes of care) in public and private hospitals in Australia. Data are held for the years 1993-94 to 2008-09.
• Some of the information available in the NHMD is presented through interactive data tables. They contain information for:
  • Principal Diagnosis, 1993-94 to 2007-08
  • Diagnosis Related Group, 1997-98 to 2007-08
  • Procedure, 2000-01 to 2007-08

  For information on the National Hospital Morbidity Data Collection and Data request service visit the Hospital data.

• The National health data dictionary definitions form the basis of the database, ensuring a high standard of data comparability.
• Diagnoses, procedures and external causes of injury are recorded using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and related Health Problems, Tenth revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM). For further information on the version used for each collection year see the ICD Coded Data Fact Sheet.
• Almost all hospitals in Australia are included in the database: public acute and public psychiatric hospitals, private acute and psychiatric hospitals, and private free standing day hospital facilities. The total number of records for 2008-09 was 8.1 million.

Example of data sourced from the NHMD

The following hospital separations figure was taken from Australian hospital statistics 2008-09, Chapter 7, Figure 1, page 131.

For more examples of NHMD data, please see chapters 3, 7, 8, 9, and 11 of Australian hospital statistics 2008-09.