National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services: Admission to hospital from emergency departments

Data are provided as per the Non-admitted patient emergency department care (NAPEDC) NMDS 2012-13.

The scope for calculation of access block measures is all hospitals reporting to the NAPEDC NMDS (Peer Groups A, B and other) as at August 2011, when the National Health Reform Agreement - National Partnership Agreement on Improving Public Hospital Services (NPA IPHS) was signed. For the duration of the NPA IPHS, hospitals that have not previously reported to the NAPEDC NMDS can come into scope, subject to agreement between the jurisdiction and the Commonwealth.

Calculation includes presentations with any Type of visit to emergency department.

Calculation includes presentations with an Episode end status of:

(1) Admitted to hospital (either short stay unit, hospital-in-the-home or non-emergency department hospital ward)

Emergency department stay (ED stay) length is calculated by subtracting the Date patient presents and Time patient presents from the Emergency department physical departure date and Emergency department physical departure time as per the business rules included in the NAPEDC NMDS 2012-13, as follows:

Presentation date and time are the date and time of the first recorded contact with an emergency department staff member. The first recorded contact can be the commencement of the clerical registration or triage process, whichever happens first.

Physical departure date and time is:

• For patients subsequently admitted to this hospital (either in a short stay unit, hospital-in-the-home or non-emergency department hospital ward), then record the time the patient leaves the emergency department to go to the admitted patient facility.
  • Patients admitted to any other ward or bed within the emergency department have not physically departed the emergency department until they leave the emergency department.
  • If the patient is admitted and subsequently dies before leaving the emergency department, then record the time the body was removed from the emergency department.