Glossary
Additional diagnosis: a condition or complaint that either coexists with the principal diagnosis or arises during the hospitalisation. An additional diagnosis is reported if the condition affects patient management. Multiple diagnoses may be recorded.
Admission: An admission to hospital. The term hospitalisation is used to describe an episode of hospital care that starts with the formal admission process and ends with the formal separation process.
Admitted patient: A patient who undergoes a hospital’s admission process to receive treatment and/or care.
Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) codes are used to classify medicines. The ATC classification of medicines is recommended by the World Health Organization and is the Australian standard for presenting and comparing drug usage data. The ATC classification groups medicines according to the body organ or system on which they act, and their therapeutic and chemical characteristics. More information on the ATC classification system can be found at structure and principles.
Continuity of GP care: Continuity refers to how consistently a person sees the same general practitioner (GP) over time. It was measured using the Usual Provider of Care (UPC) index, which calculates the proportion of GP visits made to the most frequently seen provider.
International Classification of Diseases (ICD): The World Health Organization’s internationally accepted classification of diseases and related health conditions. The 10th revision, Australian modification (ICD-10-AM) is currently in use in Australian hospitals for admitted patients.
Mental health services: Mental health services accessed by ex-serving ADF members were identified based on mental health prescriptions dispensed under the PBS and RPBS, Medicare-subsidised mental health services, mental health ED presentations, and mental health hospitalisations.
Multipurpose Australian Comorbidity Scoring System (MACSS): MACSS is a hospital comorbidity measure based on principal and additional hospital diagnosis codes that captures 102 selected comorbid conditions using the ICD10-AM algorithm.
Patient presentation at emergency department: The presentation of a patient at an emergency department occurs following the arrival of the patient at the emergency department. It is the earliest occasion of being registered clerically, or triaged.
Principal diagnosis: The principal diagnosis is the diagnosis considered to be chiefly responsible for occasioning an episode of patient care (hospitalisation).
Regularity of GP care: Regularity refers to how evenly GP visits are spaced across time. It was measured using the Modified Regularity of care index, which is based on the variation in time between visits.
Relative Risk ratio (RRRs): In multinomial logistic regression, the RRR represents the ratio of the probability of belonging to a group category relative to a reference category. If RRR>1, the characteristic increases the likelihood of being in the specified category relative to the reference category, and if RRR<1, then the characteristic decreases the likelihood of being in the specified category relative to the reference category.
Rx-Risk Index: Rx-Risk is a measure for determining an individual’s current comorbidities based on their prescription medicine dispensing. In this report, the weighted scores for 46 comorbid conditions as described by Pratt et al was used. The Rx-Risk Index was categorised as 0, 1 and 2+.
Specialist attendances: A specialist attendance usually requires a referral from a general practitioner. A specialist attendance is a referred patient-doctor encounter (with Medicare funding benefits), such as a visit, consultation and attendance (including a video conference) with a medical practitioner who has been recognised as a specialist or consultant physician for the purposes of Medicare benefits.