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Episode of admitted patient care—admission urgency status, code N

Identifying and definitional attributes

Metadata item type:Help on this termData Element
Short name:Help on this termUrgency of admission
METEOR identifier:Help on this term269986
Registration status:Help on this term
  • Commonwealth Department of Health, Recorded 16/07/2015
  • Health, Superseded 25/01/2018
Definition:Help on this term

Whether the admission has an urgency status assigned and, if so, whether admission occurred on an emergency basis, as represented by a code.

Data Element Concept:Episode of admitted patient care—admission urgency status

Value domain attributes

Representational attributes

Representation class:Help on this termCode
Data type:Help on this termNumber
Format:Help on this termN
Maximum character length:Help on this term1
Permissible values:Help on this term
ValueMeaning
1Urgency status assigned - emergency
2Urgency status assigned - elective
3Urgency status not assigned
Supplementary values:Help on this term
ValueMeaning
9Not known/not reported

Data element attributes

Collection and usage attributes

Guide for use:Help on this term

CODE 1    Urgency status assigned - emergency

Emergency admission:

The following guidelines may be used by health professionals, hospitals and health insurers in determining whether an emergency admission has occurred. These guidelines should not be considered definitive.

An emergency admission occurs if one or more of the following clinical conditions are applicable such that the patient required admission within 24 hours.

Such a patient would be:

  • at risk of serious morbidity or mortality and requiring urgent assessment and/or resuscitation; or
  • suffering from suspected acute organ or system failure; or
  • suffering from an illness or injury where the viability or function of a body part or organ is acutely threatened; or
  • suffering from a drug overdose, toxic substance or toxin effect; or
  • experiencing severe psychiatric disturbance whereby the health of the patient or other people is at immediate risk; or
  • suffering severe pain where the viability or function of a body part or organ is suspected to be acutely threatened; or
  • suffering acute significant haemorrhage and requiring urgent assessment and treatment; or
  • suffering gynaecological or obstetric complications; or
  • suffering an acute condition which represents a significant threat to the patient's physical or psychological wellbeing; or
  • suffering a condition which represents a significant threat to public health.

If an admission meets the definition of emergency above, it is categorised as emergency, regardless of whether the admission occurred within 24 hours of such a categorisation being made, or after 24 hours or more.

CODE 2     Urgency status assigned - Elective

Elective admissions:

If an admission meets the definition of elective above, it is categorised as elective, regardless of whether the admission actually occurred after 24 hours or more, or it occurred within 24 hours. The distinguishing characteristic is that the admission could be delayed by at least 24 hours.

Scheduled admissions:

A patient who expects to have an elective admission will often have that admission scheduled in advance. Whether or not the admission has been scheduled does not affect the categorisation of the admission as emergency or elective, which depends only on whether it meets the definitions above. That is, patients both with and without a scheduled admission can be admitted on either an emergency or elective basis.

Admissions from elective surgery waiting lists:

Patients on waiting lists for elective surgery are assigned a Clinical urgency status which indicates the clinical assessment of the urgency with which a patient requires elective hospital care. On admission, they will also be assigned an urgency of admission category, which may or may not be elective:

  • Patients who are removed from elective surgery waiting lists on admission as an elective patient for the procedure for which they were waiting (see code 1 in metadata item Reason for removal from an elective surgery waiting list code N) will be assigned an Admission urgency status code N code of 2. In that case, their clinical urgency category could be regarded as further detail on how urgent their admission was.
  • Patients who are removed from elective surgery waiting lists on admission as an emergency patient for the procedure for which they were waiting (see code 2 in metadata item Reason for removal from an elective surgery waiting list code N), will be assigned an Admission urgency status code N code of 1.

CODE 3     Urgency status not assigned

Admissions for which an urgency status is usually not assigned are:

  • admissions for normal delivery (obstetric)
  • admissions which begin with the birth of the patient, or when it was intended that the birth occur in the hospital, commence shortly after the birth of the patient
  • statistical admissions
  • planned readmissions for the patient to receive limited care or treatment for a current condition, for example dialysis or chemotherapy.

An urgency status can be assigned for admissions of the types listed above for which an urgency status is not usually assigned. For example, a patient who is to have an obstetric admission may have one or more of the clinical conditions listed above and be admitted on an emergency basis.

CODE 9     Not known/not reported

This code is used when it is not known whether or not an urgency status has been assigned, or when an urgency status has been assigned but is not known.

Source and reference attributes

Submitting organisation:Help on this termEmergency definition working party
Origin:Help on this termNational Health Data Committee

Relational attributes

Related metadata references:Help on this term
Supersedes PDFUrgency of admission, version 1, DE, NHDD, NHIMG, Superseded 01/03/2005.pdf (21.4 KB) No registration status
Has been superseded by Episode of admitted patient care—admission urgency status, code N
  • ACT Health (retired), Candidate 09/08/2018
  • Health, Standard 25/01/2018
Implementation in Data Set Specifications:Help on this term
All attributes +

Admitted patient care NMDSHealth, Superseded 07/12/2005

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2005

Implementation end date: 30/06/2006


Admitted patient care NMDS 2006-07Health, Superseded 23/10/2006

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2006

Implementation end date: 30/06/2007


Admitted patient care NMDS 2007-08Health, Superseded 05/02/2008

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2007

Implementation end date: 30/06/2008


Admitted patient care NMDS 2008-09Health, Superseded 04/02/2009

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2008

Implementation end date: 30/06/2009


Admitted patient care NMDS 2009-10Health, Superseded 22/12/2009

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2009

Implementation end date: 30/06/2010


Admitted patient care NMDS 2010-11Health, Superseded 18/01/2011

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2010

Implementation end date: 30/06/2011


Admitted patient care NMDS 2011-12Commonwealth Department of Health, Recorded 16/07/2015
Health, Superseded 11/04/2012

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2011

Implementation end date: 30/06/2012


Admitted patient care NMDS 2012-13Health, Superseded 02/05/2013

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2012

Implementation end date: 30/06/2013


Admitted patient care NMDS 2013-14Health, Superseded 11/04/2014

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2013

Implementation end date: 30/06/2014


Admitted patient care NMDS 2014-15Health, Superseded 13/11/2014

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2014

Implementation end date: 30/06/2015


Admitted patient care NMDS 2015-16Health, Superseded 10/11/2015

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2015

Implementation end date: 30/06/2016


Admitted patient care NMDS 2016-17Health, Superseded 05/10/2016

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2016

Implementation end date: 30/06/2017


Admitted patient care NMDS 2017-18Health, Superseded 25/01/2018

DSS specific attributes +

Implementation start date: 01/07/2017

Implementation end date: 30/06/2018


Implementation in Indicators:Help on this term
Used as Numerator

Indigenous Better Cardiac Care measure: 3.1-Hospitalised ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction events treated by percutaneous coronary intervention, 2016Health, Standard 17/08/2017

Indigenous Better Cardiac Care measure: 3.3-Hospitalised acute coronary syndrome events that included diagnostic angiography or definitive revascularisation procedures, 2016Health, Standard 17/08/2017

Indigenous Better Cardiac Care measure: 3.5-Hospitalised acute myocardial infarction events that ended with death of the patient, 2016Health, Standard 17/08/2017

Used as Denominator

Indigenous Better Cardiac Care measure: 3.1-Hospitalised ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction events treated by percutaneous coronary intervention, 2016Health, Standard 17/08/2017

Indigenous Better Cardiac Care measure: 3.3-Hospitalised acute coronary syndrome events that included diagnostic angiography or definitive revascularisation procedures, 2016Health, Standard 17/08/2017

Indigenous Better Cardiac Care measure: 3.5-Hospitalised acute myocardial infarction events that ended with death of the patient, 2016Health, Standard 17/08/2017

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