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released: 31 Oct 2012 author: AIHW

This annual report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) complies with the requirements of the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997. The AIHW's activities are guided by legislative and government requirements, as well as its strategic directions, work plan and contractual obligations. This annual report describes these activities with reference to these requirements for the 2011-12 year. The report highlights significant outputs during the year that help to provide Australians with quality, nationally-consistent health and welfare information. It also includes a short feature to celebrate the AIHW’s 25th year of operation.

ISSN 1321-4985; ISBN 978-1-74249-351-0; Cat. no. AUS 161; 288pp.;

Highlights

2011–12 saw the culmination of work by the AIHW that related directly to its strategic directions (SD).

SD1 Further strengthen our policy relevance
Provided data and data quality statements for the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) national agreements performance indicators Performance indicator data support reporting by the COAG Reform Council about national agreements on health, housing and homelessness, disability and Indigenous reform
Released a report on the first quarter of data from the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection The Specialist Homelessness Services Collection reports improved information on homelessness services and their clients
Developed two significant reports on cancer and on treated end-stage kidney disease containing data that have been projected forward to 2020 Projections help with health service planning and resource allocation
Published for the first time, national statistics about Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia infections in hospitals 'Goldenstaph' causes a very serious bloodstream infection and can be contracted by hospital patients after admission to a hospital
Provided data on male health issues The data contributed to the development of Australia’s first National Male Health Policy
SD2 Improve the availability of information for the community and our stakeholders
Published and launched Australia’s welfare 2011 and Australia’s health 2012 and their companion  print and web publications Australia’s welfare 2011— in brief and Australia’s health 2012— in brief The reports meet legislative requirements and provide comprehensive information as reference works and in 'digestible' formats for the community
Launched the Mental health services in Australia web pages, which give a comprehensive picture of mental health services and resources provided by governments The reporting format for Mental health services in Australia has been moved to a web-based format that allows updates to occur more frequently and enhances data accessibility
Produced  user-friendly, accessible web-based snapshots of information and statistics on a range of subjects A range of new web products makes data more accessible to those who want to access key findings quickly and easily
SD3 Improve information quality, protecting privacy
Achieved accreditation as an integrating authority for the integration of Commonwealth data The newly established Data Integration Services Centre will undertake data linkage work in an enhanced data storage and security environment, and provide support to researchers undertaking a wide variety of complex analyses
Continued to develop data quality statements for all data reported Data quality statements provide users with explanations of data issues so they will be better able to undertake fair analysis and assessment of data
SD4 Capitalise on the contemporary information environment
Delivered annual elective surgery waiting times data much earlier than in previous years Improved business and technological processes support our efforts to meet client expectations for timely delivery of data
SD5 Cultivate and value a skilled, engaged and versatile workforce
Participated in staff exchanges with the Canadian Institute for Health Information Opportunities for staff exchanges and secondments support and develop the capabilities of our staff to meet our work requirements

Further information on these highlights is provided in the In brief section that follows, where there is reference to a number of 'spotlights', and in Chapter 1 Our performance and Chapter 3 Our operating units.

Recommended citation

AIHW 2012. Annual report 2011-12. AIHW annual report. Cat. no. AUS 161. Canberra: AIHW.