The classification employs a system of urgency categorisation based on factors such as the degree of pain, dysfunction and disability caused by the condition and its potential to deteriorate quickly into an emergency. All patients ready for care must be assigned to one of the urgency categories, regardless of how long it is estimated they will need to wait for surgery.

Code 1 Elective surgery - category 1
Admission within 30 days desirable for a condition that has the potential to deteriorate quickly to the point that it may become an emergency.

Code 2 Elective surgery - category 2
Admission within 90 days desirable for a condition causing some pain, dysfunction or disability but which is not likely to deteriorate quickly or become an emergency.

Code 3 Elective surgery - category 3
Admission at some time in the future acceptable for a condition causing minimal or no pain, dysfunction or disability, which is unlikely to deteriorate quickly and which does not have the potential to become an emergency.

Code 4 Other - category, code 5 Other - category 2 and code 6 Other - category 3
Urgency categories 4, 5 & 6 are recorded for other waiting episodes for medical procedures.  

In Queensland, the Elective Admissions Module (HBCIS-EAM) is used as a waiting list management module for other activity not classified as surgery, but are medical procedures.  There was an identified business need to also categorise these procedures so to differentiate them from the surgical patients, 4, 5 and 6 were used.  The clinically recommended waiting times for these categories are the same as the surgical categories, ie within 30 days, within 90 days and within 365 days respectively.  There is currently no requirement from the Department of Health to use EAM to capture non-surgical procedures in EAM, but any non-surgical procedures should be categorised as 4, 5, 6 so that they can be excluded from elective surgery reporting.

Code 9 Surveillance procedure
The procedure is required to be performed as part of an ongoing observational program, usually to monitor a patient with an existing condition or for a patient at risk of developing a condition. A patient's initial procedure should be categorised as urgent, semi-urgent or non-urgent and a surveillance procedure as part of a surveillance program should be categorised as surveillance.