Background
The Medical Indemnity National Collection (Public Sector) was established in 2003 to report nationally on public sector medical indemnity claims. These are claims for compensation for harm or other loss allegedly due to the delivery of health care covered by public sector medical indemnity insurers.
Further information on medical indemnity claims and the Medical Indemnity National Collection (MINC) can be found at http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/329638
The cubes
The cubes contain data for the period 2003–04 to 2008–09.
The two MINC data cubes should be used in conjunction with Australia’s public sector medical indemnity claims 2008−09, (released 20 Sep 2011). The data cubes supplement the main tables in the report, but the report also contains additional information not covered by the data cubes. The two cubes are:
The first cube provides information on claims in the year that that their reserve was set, including their reserve amount. The second cube provides information on claims in the year that they were closed, including the size of the claim.
The values (measures) in the data cubes are:
- Number of claims
- Months of claim duration (months between when the reserve was set and the claim was closed for closed claims, or between when the reserve was set and 30 June 2009 for claims still open on 30 June 2009)
The data items (dimensions) in the data cubes are:
| Data item |
Explanation |
| Year reserve set |
Financial year in which a reserve was first placed against the claim. |
| Reserve range |
The estimated size of the claim, recorded in broad dollar ranges. |
| Year claim closed |
For closed claims, financial year in which the claim was settled, a final court decision was delivered, or the claim file was closed (whichever occurred first). |
| Total claim size |
For closed claims, the amount agreed to be paid to the claimant in total settlement of the claim, plus investigative and defence legal costs, recorded in broad dollar ranges. |
| Mode of claim finalisation |
For closed claims, description of the process by which the claim was finalised. 'Settled through State-Territory-based complaints processes', 'Settled through court-based alternative dispute resolution processes' and 'Settled through statutorily mandated compulsory conference process' have been aggregated under 'Conference, dispute-resolution and health-complaints processes'. |
| Clinical service context |
The area of clinical practice or hospital department in which the patient was receiving a health-care service when the alleged incident occurred. 'Accident and emergency’ in the cubes is equivalent to 'Emergency department'. |
| Primary incident/allegation category |
The high-level category describing what is alleged to have 'gone wrong'; that is, the area of the possible error, negligence or problem that was of primary importance in giving rise to the claim, reflecting key causal factors. |
| Primary incident/allegation subcategory |
Detailed information on the 'Medication-related', 'Procedure' and 'Treatment' Primary incident/allegation categories. |
| Extent of harm |
The extent or severity of the overall harm to the patient. |
Instructions for use
When a data cube is opened (in the View tab), the table shows Number of claims as the default measure. To view any of the other three measures, use the left mouse to drag the icon for the measure onto the column headings, and drop the icon when a downward arrow or left-pointing arrow appears. The additional measure will appear in a separate column. To remove any measure from view, right click its column heading and select Hide <measurement> from the menu.
To add a dimension to the table, left click its icon and drag it towards the top left hand of the table. To display it as an additional column dimension, wait till a left-pointing arrow appears and drop the icon. To display it as an additional row dimension, wait till a downward-pointing arrow appears and drop the icon. To remove a dimension, right click its label in the top left hand of the table and select Hide <dimension> from the menu, or you can replace the dimension by selecting Change <dimension> to <other dimension> from the menu.
If there are too many column and/or row headings to appear in the same screen, there are arrows that allow you to scroll through the column headings and row headings.
If you want to collate totals and present per cents of totals, select the Edit tab and right click the table icon. This provides additional options for data presentation in the View tab.
The data can be exported either to Excel or Word. In View, right click the table area and select Export table from the menu. Choose how many rows you want to export, and whether to export to Excel or Word. After selecting OK, select Open or Save rather than the default Cancel button. (If you select Excel and Open, then next select Yes rather than the default No button.) To save the file (which is an htm file with extension .do) select Save as from the top-left menu, scroll through the file type options to assign .xls (or .doc as appropriate), give the file a name and save it in the directory of your choosing.