Hospital Discharge Data

Summary

Strengths: Data collected from a wide range of inpatient care facilties, including specialty hospitals treating chronic disease and includes basic sociodemographic data. The aggregate data freely available online analyses discharge data by age group. The registry Includes data on diagnoses and interventions done during the hospital stay, which provides a measure of healthcare utilisation. Weaknesses: Quality of hospital discharge data varies across Austria because while hospitals are advised on correct coding and terminology, quality control is limited. Linkage to other databases is not possible as data is anonymised from the outset and does not include a personal identifier. There is no information on the origin of patients (e.g. nursing homes) or re-admissions, as well as no information on the facilities from where users are discharged.

Type of data

Data Source
Registry

Type of Study
Other: Registry

Data gathering method
Other: Hospital admissions and discharge data collected by hospitals and submitted to the Ministry of Health is passed on to Statistik Austria

Access to data

Conditions of access

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
Anonymised aggregate data and anonymised microdata

Formats available

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
Data collection ongoing since 1989 (data collected in current form for 23 years). Approximately 53 million individual records have been collected since 1989. This has ranged from 1 million persons in 1989, to 2.8 million in 2011

First year of collection
1989

Stratification if applicable

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
Patient residence by postal code is the most specific geographical data collected, but for data protection reasons, the most specific geographical unit used in publication is the state (Bundesland) level.

Age range
No age range specified

Statistical representativeness
Other, please specify

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
Data is collected on all diagnoses and medical interventions conducted during patients' hospital stay, as well as information concerning hospital admissions, diagnoses, and medical interventions, and hospital discharge information. Corresponds to Health and Performance Topic

Linkage

Standardisation
ICD-10

Possibility of linkage among databases
No linkage is possible as data is anonymised from the outset

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
Limited quality control possible

Breaks
No breaks reported

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
Terminology used varies across hospitals

Governance

Contact information
Erika Baldaszati and Jeannette Klimont
Statistik Austria
Guglgasse 13
1110 Wien Austria Phone: Erika Baldaszati: 00431711287263 / Jeannette Klimont:00431711288277
Email: erika.baldaszti(at)statistik.gv.at / jeannette.klimont(at)statistik.gv.at
Url: http://statcube.at/statistik.at/ext/superweb/loadDatabase.do?db=dekrankenbewegungen_ex

Timeliness, transparency
Data is collected annually and the main findings are published 11 months following reception.