There is a hierarchy of statistical units used within the LHN DSS. Information is provided at each level:

• Local Hospital Network
• State or territory health authority

In the LHN DSS, the term 'establishment' is used to refer to entities reporting at each of the hierarchical levels. Thus, for the purposes of this collection, 'establishment' refers to Local Hospital Networks and state and territory health authorities. 

The following are principles of the collection. Jurisdictions should consider these principles when providing data.

1. Data should be reported by jurisdictions at the level relevant to service management and/or provision.
2. The DSS should capture and differentiate between in-scope and out-of-scope of the National Health Reform Agreement.
3. The DSS must specify where data elements are reporting actual data and where they are reporting estimated data.
4. Where possible, the DSS should align so that it acts as a subset of the Government health expenditure NMDS.
5. Reporting on expenditure and activity delivered under contract requires less detail than other expenditure and activity.

Actual expenditure and revenue data are expected to be reported at the level at which they appear in the general ledger. Expenditure and revenue data are not expected to be apportioned to a lower level. 

Expenditure and revenue data reported to the LHN DSS should reconcile with published financial statements.

Expenditure data are reported in two ways:

• as it would appear in the general ledger line items (Establishment—recurrent non-salary expenditure, public hospital expenditure categories code N[N] and Establishment—staffing categories, health code N)
• by National Health Reform Agreement product streams (Establishment—total recurrent expenditure, National Health Reform Agreement 2011 product streams code N[N]). These are estimated data.

The total expenditure by product stream should equal the total expenditure by general ledger line item at both levels of the hierarchy.

For the purposes of the LHN DSS, funding from the Commonwealth, National Health Funding Body, state and territory health authorities and other state and territory government departments is considered to be revenue and should be reported as such.

Some data for this DSS are sourced from the state or territory health authority general ledger. Some other data are maintained by the LHN and are forwarded to the relevant state or territory health authority for inclusion.

National reporting arrangements

State and territory health authorities provide the data to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for national collation, on an annual basis.

Periods for which data are collected and nationally collated

Financial years ending 30 June each year.

Interaction with the Public hospital establishments NMDS

The Public hospital establishments national minimum data set (PHE NMDS) and the LHN DSS work together to collect data on the public hospital system. The two data set specifications collect the same expenditure and revenue data items, but at different levels of the system:

It is expected that expenditure and revenue data will be reported at the level at which they occur.

In addition to the shared expenditure and revenue data items, each collection has a number of unique items. The PHE NMDS includes items such as establishment location, establishment type and specialised service indicators that do not appear in the LHN DSS. Similarly, the LHN DSS includes gross and net capital expenditure items that do not appear in the PHE NMDS.

It is intended that once the LHN DSS is firmly established, the two collections should be merged into a single NMDS.

Scope links with Health NMDSs

The LHN DSS shares scope with the Government health expenditure NMDS.