Hospitals info & downloads: About the data

The National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) is a compilation of episode-level records from admitted patient morbidity data collection systems in Australian hospitals.

The data supplied are based on the National minimum data set (NMDS) for Admitted patient care and include demographic, administrative and length of stay data, as well as data on the diagnoses of the patients, the procedures they underwent in hospital and external causes of injury and poisoning.

The purpose of the NMDS for Admitted patient care is to collect information about care provided to admitted patients in Australian hospitals.

The scope of the NMDS is episodes of care for admitted patients in all public and private acute and psychiatric hospitals, free standing day hospital facilities, and alcohol and drug treatment centres in Australia. Hospitals operated by the Australian Defence Force, corrections authorities and in Australia’s off-shore territories are not in scope but some are included.

The AIHW has undertaken the collection and reporting of the data in this report under the auspices of the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council, through the National Health Information Agreement.

The data supplied by state and territory health authorities were used by the AIHW to assemble the National Elective Surgery Waiting Times Data Collection (NESWTDC), covering waiting times and other characteristics of elective surgery in all public hospitals.

The NESWTDC covers most public hospitals that undertake elective surgery. Hospitals that were not included may not undertake elective surgery, may not have had waiting lists, or may have had different waiting list characteristics from those of reporting hospitals. Some smaller remote hospitals may have different patterns of service delivery to those of other hospitals because specialists providing elective surgery services visit these hospitals only periodically.

Before 2016–17, the elective surgery waiting list data were reported to two separate national minimum data sets (NMDSs), which are available on the AIHW’s Metadata Online Register (METeOR):

• Elective surgery waiting times (census data) NMDS—which included patients on waiting lists for elective surgery who were yet to be admitted to hospital or removed for another reason (see METeOR identifier 613687).
• Elective surgery waiting times (removals data) NMDS—which included patients removed from waiting lists for elective surgery (for admission or another reason) (see METeOR identifier 600056).   

From 1 July 2016, the Elective surgery waiting times NMDS comprises both removals and census data—that is, patients on, or removed from, elective surgery waiting lists (see METeOR identifier 684521).

National Non-admitted Patient Care (aggregate) Database (NNAPC(Agg)D)

The NNAPC(agg)D is based on data provided for the:

• Non-admitted patient care aggregate National Best Endeavours Data Set (NAPC aggregate NBEDS) (METeOR identifier 699627)
• Non-admitted patient National Best Endeavours Data Set (NAP NBEDS) (METeOR identifier 699590).

It holds aggregated clinic-level data on:

• the type of outpatient clinic
• counts of individual and group service events
• the funding source for the service events
• whether the service involved care from multiple health care providers.

The scope is non-admitted patient service events involving non-admitted patients provided by:

• public hospitals
• Local Hospital Networks
• other public hospitals services that are managed by a state or territory health authority and are included in the General List of in-scope public hospital services which have been developed under the National Health Reform Agreement (2011).

The reference period for this data set is 2019–20. The data set includes records for non-admitted patient service events provided between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020.

National Non-admitted Patient (episode-level) Database (NNAP(el)D)

The NNAP(el)D is based on the Non-admitted patient National Best Endeavours Data Set (NAP NBEDS) (METeOR identifier 699590).

The reference period for this data set is 2019–20. The data set includes records for non-admitted patient service events provided between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020.

It holds episode-level data including:

• selected patient characteristics
• the type of outpatient clinic
• whether the episode was an individual or a group service event
• the source of the request for service
• the service delivery setting
• the service delivery mode
• the type of care provided
• whether the service involved care from multiple health-care providers
• the funding source for the service event.

For 2019–20, the scope of the NAP NBEDS is non-admitted patient service events provided by:

• public hospitals
• Local Hospital Networks (LHNs)
• other public hospital services that are managed by a state or territory health authority and are included in the General list of in-scope public hospital services, developed under the National Health Reform Agreement (2011).

Change in scope for 2019–20

The aim of the Non-admitted Patient Care data collections is to report episode-level data on non-admitted activity in Australia’s public hospital system. Data suppliers report non-admitted patient activity in either aggregate or episode-level format. 

The episode level data is collected under the Non-admitted patient National Best Endeavours Data Set (NAP NBEDS) while the aggregate level data is collected under the Non-admitted patient care aggregate National Best Endeavours Data Set (NAPC aggregate NBEDS). 

The NAP NBEDS and NAPC aggregate NBEDS work together to collect data on non-admitted activity in the public hospital system. The two collections are designed to be complimentary, with the NAPC aggregate NBEDS providing the remainder of non-admitted activity that is unable to be provided at the episode-level. 

Each year the collection increasingly reports on episode-level data, however not all data suppliers are able to report data in this format. In 2019–20, 75% of non-admitted patient service events were recorded at the episode-level and 25% of service events were recorded at the aggregate-level. 

In 2019–20, the data recorded under the NAP NBEDS was used to supplement the data recorded under the NAPC aggregate NBEDS to form a more complete view of non-admitted patient activity in Australian public hospitals.

The National Public Hospitals Establishments Data (NPHED) is based on data reported by state and territory health authorities for the Local Hospital Networks/Public hospital establishments National minimum data set (LHN/PHE NMDS).

The AIHW has undertaken the collection and reporting of the data in this report under the auspices of the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council, through the National Health Information Agreement.

The LHN/PHE NMDS is defined in the AIHW’s Metadata Online Registry (METEOR).

The scope of the LHN/PHE NMDS includes 3 levels of hierarchical reporting:

• public hospital establishments, including public acute and psychiatric hospitals, and alcohol and drug treatment centres. It also includes public hospitals that provide subacute and non-acute care (for example, rehabilitation and palliative care hospitals)
• Local Hospital Networks (LHN)
• at the jurisdictional level, all public hospital services that are managed by a state or territory health authority and are included in the General list of In-scope Public Hospital Services, which has been developed under the National Health Reform Agreement (2011) and excluding data which are already reported in the PHE or LHN levels (above).

The LHN/PHE NMDS allows the collection of recurrent expenditure, revenue, admitted contracted care and staffing information whether delivered and/or managed by hospitals or other administrative units (LHNs and state/territory health authorities).

Information relevant to interpretation of the ABS’s Private hospitals Australia report is available on the
ABS website

National Non‑admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database (NNAPEDCD)

The AIHW has collected and reported on the NNAPEDCD under the auspices of the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council, through the National Health Information Agreement.

The data supplied by state and territory health authorities for the Non-admitted Patient Emergency Department Care (NAPEDC) National Minimum Data Set/National Best Endeavours Data Set (NMDS/NBEDS) were used by the AIHW to assemble the National Non‑admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database (NNAPEDCD). The data cover waiting times and other characteristics of presentations to public hospital emergency departments.

The NNAPEDCD provides information on the care provided (including waiting times for care) for non‑admitted patients registered for care in public hospital emergency departments that have:

• purposely designed and equipped area with designated assessment, treatment, and resuscitation areas
• the ability to provide resuscitation, stabilisation, and initial management of all emergencies
• availability of medical staff in the hospital 24 hours a day
• designated emergency department nursing staff 24 hours per day 7 days per week, and a designated emergency department nursing unit manager.