• Health, Superseded 06/09/2018

The purpose of the Admitted patient care National best endeavours data set (APC NBEDS) is to collect information about care provided to admitted patients in Australian hospitals.

The scope of the APC NBEDS is episodes of care for admitted patients in all public and private acute and psychiatric hospitals, free standing day hospital facilities and alcohol and drug treatment centres in Australia. Hospitals operated by the Australian Defence Force, corrections authorities and in Australia's off-shore territories may also be included. Hospitals specialising in dental, ophthalmic aids and other specialised acute medical or surgical care are included.

The scope of hospitals for which data are available may vary across jurisdictions.

Hospital boarders and still births are not included as they are not admitted to hospital. Posthumous organ procurement episodes are also not included.

Episodes of care for admitted patients

Data are collected at each hospital from patient administrative and clinical record systems. Hospitals forward data to the relevant state or territory health authority on a regular basis (e.g. monthly).

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.

There may be some variation across jurisdictions in the definition of admission time and separation time. This variation would need to be documented in accompanying material regarding the data elements.

Interaction with the Admitted patient care National Minimum Data Set (APC NMDS) 2017–18

The APC NMDS and APC NBEDS work together to collect data on episodes of care for admitted patients.

It is intended that once the APC NBEDS is established, the data elements within the APC NBEDS will be integrated into the APC NMDS.

Glossary items

Glossary terms that are relevant to this NBEDS include:

Admission

Hospital-in-the-home care 

Separation

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare