This should occur after a previous last contact date of a previous care episode and prior to or on the same as first service delivery date.
Includes:
visits made to a person in institutional settings such as liaison visits or discharge planning visits, made in a hospital or residential aged care service with the intent of planning for the future delivery of service at home;
telephone contacts when these are in lieu of a first home or hospital visit for the purpose of preliminary assessment for care at home;
visits made to the person's home prior to admission for the purpose of assessing the suitability of the home environment for the person's care.
This applies irrespective of whether the person is present or not.
Excludes:
first visits where the visit objective is not met, such as first visit made where no one is home.
Collection methods:
The first contact date can be the same as first service delivery date and apply whether a person is entering care for the first time or any subsequent episode. This date should be recorded when it is the same as the first delivery of service date.
Comments:
This metadata item is recommended for use in community services which are funded for liaison or discharge planning positions or provide specialist consultancy or assessment services. Further developments in community care, including casemix and coordinated care will require collection of data relating to resource expenditure across the sector.
To enable analysis of time periods throughout a care episode, especially the pre-admission period and associated activities. This metadata item enables the capture of the commencement of care irrespective of the setting in which the activities took place.
