The data elements included in the NHMD are based on the National Minimum Data Set for Admitted Patient Care in METeOR.
Establishment data
- State or territory of the hospital
- Sector (public, private)
- RRMA (Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas) and other characteristics of the hospital (public hospitals only) (from 1995-96)
- ARIA (Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia) of the hospital (from 1998-99, and only for some jurisdictions)
- Remoteness Area of the hospital (from 2000-01).
Demographic data
- Sex
- Date of birth
- Age, age group (in 5-year groups)
- Country of birth (from 1996-97)
- Indigenous status
- State and local area of residence (Statistical Local Area, Statistical Subdivision, Statistical Division; from 1997-98)
- RRMA Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas) of patient's residence (from 1995-96)
- Remoteness Area of patient's residence (from 2000-01).
Administrative data
- Funding source data elements including Admitted patient election status, Funding source for hospital patient, Department of Veterans' Affairs patient and Medicare eligibility status
- Urgency of admission
Length of stay data
- Admission and separation dates
- Leave days
- Same day flag (to indicate separation/discharge on the same day as admission)
Clinical and related data
- Principal diagnosis (the diagnosis established after study to be chiefly responsible for occasioning the patient's episode of care in hospital)
- Additional diagnoses (include co-existing conditions and/or complications)
- Procedures (surgical and non-surgical)
- Major Diagnostic Category (MDC) and Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Group (AR-DRG)
- Estimated average cost for the AR-DRG (for the public and private sectors)
- Care type (for example acute, rehabilitation, palliative, newborn) (from 1995-96 for some jurisdictions; the newborn category was introduced in 1998-99)
- Admission mode (source from which the person was transferred/referred)
- Separation mode (status at separation: discharge/transfer/death and place to which person is released)
- Intended length of stay (same day or overnight)
- External causes of injury or poisoning
- Places of occurrence of external cause
- Activity when injured (from 1998-99)
Additional information and limitations
- The term 'separation' refers to the episode of care, which can be a total hospital stay (from admission to discharge, transfer or death), or a portion of a hospital stay beginning or ending in a change of type of care (for example, from acute to rehabilitation). A record is included for each separation, not for each patient. So patients who separate more than once have more than one record in the database.
- The actual definitions used by the data providers may vary from year to year and between jurisdictions and sectors. Comparisons between the states and territories, reporting years and hospital sectors should be therefore made with caution.
- The major exceptions within the public sector are hospitals operated by the Department of Defence, correctional facilities and hospitals located in off-shore territories. There are also some exceptions within the private sector. The scope of the data collection has also varied from year to year. Comparisons between the states and territories, reporting years and hospital sectors should be therefore made with caution.
- The RRMA (Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Area) classification allocates locations to one of seven geographical area types, based on population size and an index of remoteness.
- The ARIA (Accessibility/Remoteness Index for Australia) defines remoteness in terms of the minimum distance by road of populated localities to four categories of service centre.
- The Australian Bureau of Statistics' Remoteness Area classification allocates locations into one of six broad geographical area types based on the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia.
- Each DRG represents a class of patients with similar clinical conditions requiring similar hospital services. Therefore, they provide a common basis for comparing factors such as cost-effectiveness and quality of care across hospitals (from 1995-96).