Emergency patients include:
- unplanned admissions, 
- patients whose admission date has been scheduled less than 24 hours prior to being admitted, 
- maternity patients, except for planned Caesarean sections or inductions, as the patient's admission date is not precisely determined prior to admission, 
- all newborn babies born in the hospital or born before arrival at hospital, and
- patients referred to hospital by a medical practitioner who requests that the patient should be admitted within 24 hours.  

Elective patients include:
- patients whose admission has been scheduled (and known about by the hospital) at least 24 hours prior to the admission, 
- patients admitted from a booking list, 
- admissions for planned Caesarean sections and inductions, 
- all those who are not emergency admissions as defined above, and 
- all episode of care changes should be recorded as elective.