The scope of the Public hospital establishments (PHE) data element cluster is establishment-level data for public acute and psychiatric hospitals, and alcohol and drug treatment centres. All activity, recurrent expenditure and related revenue in the public hospital's General Ledger are in-scope, regardless of whether all components are a 'public hospital service' under the National Health Reform Agreement (2011) (NHRA).
Similar data for private hospitals and free-standing day hospital facilities are collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the Private Health Establishments Collection.
Hospitals specialising in dental, ophthalmic aids and other specialised acute medical or surgical care are included. Hospitals operated by the Australian Defence Force, corrections authorities and Australia's external territories are also not included.
Collection and usage attributes
Statistical unit:
PHE
Guide for use:
The following are principles of the collection. States and territories should consider these principles when providing data.
The PHE data element cluster should capture and differentiate between in-scope and out-of-scope of the NHRA.
The PHE data element cluster must specify where financial data elements are reporting actual data and where they are reporting estimated data.
Where possible, the PHE data element cluster should align with the Government health expenditure NMDS (GHE NMDS), so it is able to function as a subset of the GHE NMDS if required.
Reporting on expenditure relating to contracted care requires less detail than other expenditure.
Where possible, the changes to the PHE data element cluster should maintain the ability to report time series data from previous years.
Recurrent expenditure and related revenue data reported to the PHE data element cluster should reconcile with published financial statements.
The total recurrent expenditure by product stream should equal the total recurrent expenditure by general ledger line item.
For the purposes of the PHE data element cluster, funding from the Australian Government, state and territory health authorities and other state and territory government departments is considered to be revenue and should be reported as such.
Collection methods:
Some data for this data element cluster are sourced from the state or territory health authority general ledger. Some other data are maintained at the Local Hospital Network (LHN) or hospital 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.
Implementation start date:
01/07/2018
Comments:
Interaction with the Local Hospital Networks and State or territory health authority data element clusters
The PHE, LHN and State or territory health authority data element clusters work together to collect data on the public hospital system. The three data set specifications collect the same types of expenditure and revenue data items, but at different levels of the system:
Hierarchical level
Data collected through
Public hospital establishments
PHE component
Local Hospital Network
LHN component
State or territory health authority
State or territory component
It is expected that recurrent expenditure and related revenue data will be reported at the level at which they occur.
In addition to the shared expenditure and revenue data items, the PHE data element cluster includes items such as establishment location, establishment type and specialised service indicators that do not appear in the other data element clusters.
Scope links with other NMDSs
The PHE NMDS shares scope with the following other hospital NMDSs, and establishment and expenditure collections:
Admitted patient care NMDS
Alcohol and other drug treatment services NMDS
Government health expenditure NMDS
Mental health establishments NMDS
Non-admitted patient care hospital aggregate NMDS
Non-admitted patient emergency department care NMDS
