This classification identifies types of services provided to non-admitted patients in different institutional ways in different systems. Definitions for each category are as follows:
Emergency departments and emergency services
C3.1 emergency services
Services to patients who are not admitted and who receive treatment that was either unplanned or carried out in designated emergency departments within a hospital. Unplanned patients are patients who have not been booked into the hospital before receiving treatment. In general it would be expected that most patients would receive surgical or medical treatment. However, where patients receive other types of treatment that are provided in emergency departments these are to be included. The exceptions are for dialysis and endoscopy and related procedures which have been recommended for separate counting.
Used to describe what happens to patients after leaving the emergency department, under the broad categories of admitted/transferred, died, and discharged.
Admitted patients that are those admitted to the hospital directly from the emergency department, including those admitted as same day patients.
Transferred patients are those sent from the emergency department to any other acute facility.
Died. The patient was dead on arrival at the emergency department, or died whilst still considered to be under the care of the emergency department.
Discharged patients are those discharged from the emergency department to home, or to another facility or residence, other than an acute facility.
The triage grading of 1 to 5 is based on the national triage scale, where:
1 = resuscitation (immediate);
2 = emergency (within 10 minutes);
3 = urgent (half an hour);
4 = semi-urgent (one hour);
5 = non-urgent (two hours).
For the purposes of activity reporting smaller hospitals need to only provide a count of emergency services.
Outpatient services
C3.2 dialysis
Refers to all non-admitted patients receiving dialysis related treatment (but not actual dialysis) within the facility. Non-admitted occasions of service include all patients who present for injections, dressings, treatment of infections, or blood and other biochemical checks.
Patient training has been included in the inpatient component of the Renal Funding Model therefore this activity should not be collected as a non-admitted occasion of service.
When presenting for dialysis treatment, patients should be admitted as a day procedure.
C3.3 pathology
This includes all occasions of service to non-admitted patients from designated pathology laboratories. Each diagnostic test, or set of diagnostic tests, for the one patient referred to a pathology laboratory constitutes one occasion of service. For example, if two blood samples and a urine sample are taken from a single patient so that two separate sets of blood tests can be done (a set on each blood sample) and a single set of urine tests can be done, this should be counted as 3 occasions of service rather than one.
C3.4 radiology and organ imaging
This includes all occasions of service to non-admitted undertaken in radiology (x-ray) departments, as well as in specialised organ imaging clinics carrying out ultrasound, computerised tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging. Each diagnostic test, or simultaneous set of related of diagnostic tests, for the one patient to a radiology department constitutes one occasion of service.
C3.5 endoscopy and related procedures
Includes all services non-admitted patients patients for endoscopy including cytoscopy, gastroscopy, oesophagoscopy, duodenoscopy, colonoscopy, bronchoscopy and larynoscopy.
Where one of these procedures is carried out in a ward or clinic classified elsewhere, for example in Accident and Emergency, the occasion is to be reported under Endoscopy related procedures and be excluded from the other category. Note that facilities would usually admit patients for endoscopy and related procedures, as they meet the minimum criteria. If patients have been admitted they should not be categorised under this data item.
C3.6 other medical/surgical/diagnostic
Any occasion of service to a non-admitted patient given at a designated unit primarily responsible for the provision of medical/surgical or diagnostic services which have not been reported under dialysis, pathology, radiology and organ imaging or endoscopy and related procedures.
Includes ECG, obstetrics, nuclear medicine, general medicine, general surgery, fertility and so on.
C3.7 mental health
All occasions of service to non-admitted patients attending designated psychiatric or mental health units within hospitals that are operated and managed by the hospital.
C3.8 drug and alcohol
All occasions of service to non-admitted patients attending designated drug and alcohol units within the facility.
C3.9 dental
All occasions of service to non-admitted patients attending designated dental units within the facility, that are operated and managed by the facility.
C3.10 pharmacy
All occasions of service to non-admitted patients from pharmacy departments. Drugs dispensed/administered in other departments such as Accident and Emergency or Outpatient departments, are to be recorded as occasions of service by the respective departments.
C3.11 allied health procedures
All occasions of service to non-admitted patients where services are provided at units or clinics providing treatment or counselling to the patients. These include units primarily concerned with physiotherapy, speech therapy, family planning, dietary advice, optometry, occupational therapy and so on.
Other non-admitted services
C3.12 community health services
Occasions of service to non-admitted patients/clients provided by designated community health units funded from the facility's operating expenditure, that are operated and managed by the facility. Community health units include baby clinics, immunisation units and aged care assessment teams. It is intended that all community health services funded through the facility be reported, regardless of where the services are provided.
C3.13 district nursing services
Occasions of service to non-admitted patients which:
- are for medical/surgical/psychiatric care
- are provided by a nurse, paramedic or medical officer
- involve travel by the service provider
- are not provided by staff from a defined community health service.
Travel does not include movement within a facility, movement between sites in a multiple-campus facility, or between facilities. Such cases should be classified under the appropriate non-admitted patient category.
C3.14 other outreach services
Occasions of service to non-admitted patients/clients which involve travel by the service provider, and are not classified as community health services or allied health services. Travel does not include movement within a facility, movement between sites in a multicampus facility, or between facilities.
It is intended that the Other Outreach Services classification exclude medical, surgical, or psychiatric services. These should be reported under District Nursing Services. Other Outreach Services include activities such as home cleaning, meals on wheels and home maintenance.
C3.15 Home dialysis patients
Home dialysis patients refers to the non-admitted patients who perform their own dialysis at home. This item is not reported as occasions of service, but as a count of patients. It is a count of patients for whom the facility pays the costs associated with the dialysis fluid, nursing products and ancillaries which are delivered directly to the patients' homes to enable home dialysis.
Four categories of dialysis are collected separately:
- home haemodialysis
- Home CAPD/Automated Peritoneal Dialysis
- Home intermittent Peritoneal Dialysis
- Self-care haemodialysis
Not all facilities incur these expenditures. For those facilities that do, that most frequently used modalities for dialysis at home are haemodialysis and Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD). Care should be taken to ensure correct recording of this information against the appropriate dialysis modality. A self-care haemodialysis unit provides a venue for medically stable haemodialysis patients, who with the support of a trained dialysis carer, are independent in the dialysis procedure.