Interpreting OSR data
On this page:
This page contains general information to aid in interpreting data from the Online Services Report (OSR) collection. The information on this page should be used in conjunction with additional information contained in the:
- Technical notes
- data tables accompanying this report – see Data
- data quality statements for the OSR collection – see Online Services Report (OSR) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific primary health care organisations, 2024–25; Quality Statement
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s Health Data Portal.
Organisational participation and data exclusions
Not all organisations in-scope to report data to the OSR collection do so. This varies by year (tables 3 and 4).
Collection period | In-scope to report data | Reported data | Participation rate (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
2018–19 | 232 | 232 | 100.0 |
2019–20(a) | 235 | 215 | 91.5 |
2020–21(a) | 238 | 211 | 88.7 |
2021–22 | 234 | 230 | 98.3 |
2022–23 | 233 | 232 | 99.6 |
| 2023–24 | 231 | 230 | 99.6 |
| 2024–25 | 229 | 229 | 100.0 |
- Reporting for these periods was made voluntary in acknowledgement of the additional pressures on organisations because of COVID-19.
Note: Includes primary health care organisations and maternal and child health organisations.
Collection period | In-scope to report data | Reported data | Participation rate (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
2018–19 | 210 | 210 | 100.0 |
2019–20(a) | 215 | 196 | 91.2 |
2020–21(a) | 218 | 191 | 87.6 |
2021–22 | 215 | 211 | 98.1 |
2022–23 | 214 | 213 | 99.5 |
| 2023–24 | 214 | 213 | 99.5 |
| 2024–25 | 215 | 215 | 100.0 |
- Reporting for these periods was made voluntary in acknowledgement of the additional pressures on organisations because of COVID-19.
Note: Excludes maternal and child health organisations.
For the organisation that do report data, particular data items may be excluded from analysis if data quality issues have not been resolved. Common data quality queries received during data submission relate to:
- incomplete or inaccurate data (for example, workforce positions not reported or reported in terms of the number of people rather than full-time equivalent positions)
- data discrepancies between 2 or more questions (for example, the number of clients exceeding the number of episodes of care)
- large increases or decreases in data items compared with previous submissions.
Where significant data quality issues remain after follow-up with organisations, affected data are excluded from analyses. This varies by year and by data item (Tables 5 and 6).
Collection period | Number of organisations with unresolved issues | Total number of organisations that reported data | Organisations with unresolved issues (%) | Data items excluded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2018–19 | 5 | 232 | 2.2 | 10 |
2019–20(a) | 2 | 215 | 0.9 | 3 |
2020–21(a) | 6 | 211 | 2.8 | 6 |
2021–22 | 15 | 230 | 6.5 | 20 |
2022–23 | 2 | 230 | 0.9 | 2 |
| 2023–24 | 2 | 230 | 0.9 | 2 |
| 2024–25 | 1 | 229 | 0.4 | 1 |
- Reporting for these periods was made voluntary in acknowledgement of the additional pressures on organisations because of COVID-19.
Note: Includes primary health care organisations and maternal and child health organisations.
Collection period | Number of organisations with unresolved issues | Total number of organisations that reported data(a) | Organisations with unresolved issues (%) | Data items excluded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2018–19 | 4 | 210 | 1.9 | 5 |
2019–20(a) | 2 | 196 | 1.0 | 3 |
2020–21(a) | 6 | 191 | 3.1 | 6 |
2021–22 | 15 | 211 | 7.1 | 20 |
2022–23 | 2 | 213 | 0.9 | 2 |
| 2023–24 | 2 | 213 | 0.9 | 2 |
| 2024–25 | 1 | 215 | 0.5 | 1 |
- Reporting for these periods was made voluntary in acknowledgement of the additional pressures on organisations because of COVID-19.
Note: Excludes maternal and child health organisations.
Because OSR data items are generally reported by all organisations, a consistent number of organisations contribute to each result in each period unless there are data exclusions. The number of organisations contributing to the analysis for each data item by collection period can be found at Data: OSR organisational profile.
Maternal and child health organisations
Unless otherwise noted, this report excludes OSR data from the small number of organisations that received funding only to provide specific maternal and child health programs or services (referred to as maternal and child health organisations in this report). This is because these organisations are significantly different from other organisations reporting to the OSR collection, both in terms of what they are funded for and what they report.
For the OSR collection, maternal and child health organisations should only report activity funded under the Indigenous Australians' Health Programme (IAHP) but some report all activity and this varies by period. See also Changes to the collection.
Selected OSR data from maternal and child health organisations are provided in Data.
Changes to the collection
The OSR collection undergoes regular review and this may result in changes to the collection. In particular:
- In 2018–19 the collection underwent significant changes such as:
- changes to the submission mechanism when data loading was moved into the Health Data Portal (previously submitted via OCHREStreams)
- content was scaled back to ‘core’ data items only – items dropped include the substance use and social and emotional wellbeing modules, and the services provided and cultural safety items.
For this reason, only data from 2018–19 onwards are presented in this report.
- In collections prior to 2018–19, maternal and child health organisations:
- primarily answered different questions (in a separate module) to other organisations
- generally did not report data on number of clients, client contacts or episodes of care
- reported inconsistent workforce information, with some only reporting funded FTE while others reported more broadly.