National Non-Admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database
All state and territory health authorities collect a core set of nationally comparable information on emergency department (ED) presentations (including mental health-related ED presentations) in public hospitals within their jurisdiction. The AIHW compiles this data annually to form the National Non-Admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database (NNAPEDCD). In 2019–20, 292 of Australia’s public hospital emergency departments reported emergency department presentations to the NNAPEDCD (AIHW 2021b).
Prior to 2014–15, diagnosis-related information was not included in the NNAPEDCD, therefore, states and territories provided the AIHW with a bespoke analysis of mental health-related emergency department presentations. Data on principal diagnosis—that is, the diagnosis chiefly responsible for occasioning the presentation to the emergency department—has subsequently been included in the NNAPEDCD. In this report, data from 2014–15 to 2019–20 are sourced from the NNAPEDCD. Data from previous years was sourced directly from jurisdictions through an annual ad-hoc data request.
Definition of mental health-related emergency department presentations
Mental health-related ED presentations in this report are defined as presentations in public hospital EDs that have a principal diagnosis of Mental and behavioural disorders (that is, codes F00–F99) in ICD-10-AM or the equivalent codes in ICD-9-CM. It does not include codes for self-harm or poisoning.
For 2019–20, principal diagnoses information is reported for the NNAPEDCD using ICD-10-AM (10th Ed) Principal Diagnosis Short List, developed by the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA) from the full version of ICD-10-AM. Further information is available in Emergency department care 2019–20 Appendixes (AIHW 2021b).
The Mental and behavioural disorders principal diagnosis codes may not fully capture all mental health-related presentations to EDs, such as presentations for self-harm. Diagnosis codes for intentional self-harm sit outside the Mental and behavioural disorders chapter (X60–X84). Additionally, a presentation for self-harm may have a principal diagnosis relating to the injury, for example Open wound to wrist and hand. These presentations cannot be identified as mental health-related presentations in the NNAPEDCD and are not included in this report.
Further information on the NNAPEDCD is available on METeOR, the AIHW’s Metadata Online Registry.
Presentation of regional data
Please refer to the technical notes for information on how data at regional levels are reported.