This data quality statement provides information relevant to interpretation of the National Outpatient Care Database for 2011–12. Summary of key issues
• While the scope of the National Outpatient Care Database (NOCD) covers public hospitals in public hospital peer groups A and B (Principal referral and specialist women’s and children’s and Large hospitals), data were also provided by some states and territories for hospitals in peer groups other than A and B. • For 2011–12, the proportion of outpatient occasions of service reported to the NOCD was estimated as 98% for public hospitals in peer groups A and B and 79% for all public hospitals. • Although the NOCD is a valuable source of information on services provided to non-admitted, non-emergency patients, the data have limitations. For example, there is variation in admission practices between states and territories and there is variation in the types of services provided for non-admitted patients in a hospital setting. • Over the 2 reporting periods 2010–11 and 2011–12, the reporting of outpatient clinic care for some jurisdictions was changed in order to align with the reporting requirements for Activity Based Funding. These changes included: the discontinuation of reporting for some activity; the commencement of reporting for some activity; the re-categorisation of some clinics according to the Tier 2 clinics structure (IHPA 2011). Therefore, data for 2010–11 and 2011–12 may not be comparable with data reported for previous years. • Data supply issues in Victoria resulted in significant under-reporting of non-admitted occasions of service in 2011–12 for Dental services. Consequently, 2011–12 data for Victoria are not directly comparable with previous years. • For 2010-11 and 2011-12 Tasmania was able to exclude counts of outpatient occasions of service provided at public hospitals by private specialists. In previous years, these were included in Tasmania’s public hospital counts. • For 2011–12, Tasmania were not able to provide outpatient care data for one Principal referral hospital, which reported about 134,000 occasions of service to the NOCD in 2010–11. Description The National Outpatient Care Database (NOCD) includes aggregate data on services provided to non-admitted, non-emergency patients registered for care in outpatient clinics of public hospitals. The data supplied are based on the National Minimum Data Set for Outpatient care (OPC NMDS). While the scope of the NOCD covers public hospitals in public hospital peer groups A or B (Principal referral and specialist women’s and children’s hospitals or Large hospitals) in Australian hospital statistics of the previous year, data were also provided by some states and territories for hospitals in peer groups other than A and B. For 2011–12, the proportion of outpatient occasions of service reported to the NOCD was estimated as 98% for public hospitals in peer groups A and B and 79% for all public hospitals. The NOCD includes data on the type of outpatient clinic and counts of individual and group occasions of service. The database includes data for each year from 2005–06 to 2011–12. |