Admitted Patient Data Collection NSW Ministry of Health Background The NSW Admitted Patient Data Collection (APDC) records all inpatient separations (discharges, transfers and deaths) from all public, private, psychiatric and repatriation hospitals in NSW, as well as public multi-purpose services, private day procedure centres and public nursing homes. In order to identify acute hospital use in the Admitted Patient Data Collection, it is strongly recommended that applications for data include the “Peer group” and the hospital flag” variables. Patient separations from developmental “Acute disability institutions and private nursing homes are not included. While the APDC includes data relating to NSW residents hospitalised interstate, names and addresses are not included on these records and therefore cannot be included in record linkage studies. Public hospital APDC data are recorded in terms of episodes of care (EOC). An episode of care ends with the patient ending a period of stay in hospital (e.g. by discharge, transfer or death) or by becoming a different of patient within the same period of stay. The “type” categories of types of care are listed under the variable of care type”. For private “Episode hospitals, each APDC record represents a complete hospital stay. APDC records are counted based on the date of separation (discharge) from hospital. Tips for using APDC data in linkage studies There are no patient names in the APDC prior to July 2000. As names are one of the principal variables used to link records between and within datasets, linkage studies should use APDC data from July 2001 onwards. Names are not available for admissions to private hospitals while the CHeReL is able – to link these records based on other demographic details, the linkage is likely to be less accurate. Caution must therefore be exercised in interpreting results where private hospital data are involved. Access to information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples An application to the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council (AH&MRC) ethics committee should be made for research projects for which one or more of the following apply: The experience of Aboriginal people is an explicit focus of all or part of the research Data collection is explicitly directed at Aboriginal peoples Aboriginal peoples, as a group, are to be examined in the results The information has an impact on one or more Aboriginal communities Aboriginal health funds are a source of funding
Admitted Patient Data Collection NSW Ministry of Health Background The NSW Admitted Patient Data Collection (APDC) records all inpatient separations (discharges, transfers and deaths) from all public, private, psychiatric and repatriation hospitals in NSW, as well as public multi-purpose services, private day procedure centres and public nursing homes. In order to identify acute hospital use in the Admitted Patient Data Collection, it is strongly recommended that applications for data include the “Peer group” and the “Acute hospital flag” variables. Patient separations from developmental disability institutions and private nursing homes are not included. While the APDC includes data relating to NSW residents hospitalised interstate, names and addresses are not included on these records and therefore cannot be included in record linkage studies. Public hospital APDC data are recorded in terms of episodes of care (EOC). An episode of care ends with the patient ending a period of stay in hospital (e.g. by discharge, transfer or death) or by becoming a different “type” of patient within the same period of stay. The categories of types of care are listed under the variable “Episode of care type”. For private hospitals, each APDC record represents a complete hospital stay. APDC records are counted based on the date of separation (discharge) from hospital. Tips for using APDC data in linkage studies There are no patient names in the APDC prior to July 2000. As names are one of the principal variables used to link records between and within datasets, linkage studies should use APDC data from July 2001 onwards. Names are not available for admissions to private hospitals – while the CHeReL is able to link these records based on other demographic details, the linkage is likely to be less accurate. Caution must therefore be exercised in interpreting results where private hospital data are involved. Access to information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples An application to the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council (AH&MRC) ethics committee should be made for research projects for which one or more of the following apply: The experience of Aboriginal people is an explicit focus of all or part of the research Data collection is explicitly directed at Aboriginal peoples Aboriginal peoples, as a group, are to be examined in the results The information has an impact on one or more Aboriginal communities Aboriginal health funds are a source of funding
apdc_data_dictionary_3sept2015.docx