software in most NSW hospitals may have led to a change in the accuracy of this field over time. Introduction of the new ED patient management software may have led to an unpredictable change in the accuracy of the "mode of separation" field over time at some hospitals. This field records the departure status of the patient, such as "Departed following treatment", or "Admitted to a critical care ward". Some problems with this field were not identified until well after introduction of the software, and may have taken some time to correct. Aboriginality was not recorded for all ED presentations in western Sydney. Changes in the provision of linked Emergency Department Data In 2014, a joint project was conducted by the Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence and the Centre for Health Record Linkage with the objectives of improving the timeliness, quality and availability of linked admitted patient data. In addition to improving these attributes of the emergency department data, all variables that were previously offered for linked data research were reviewed. While the net effect of this review was a vast increase in the number of available variables, some have been removed from the variable checklist and data dictionary due to poor completeness or other quality issues. Some of the high changes include: There are now many more geographical boundaries available to researchers. When considering which version or versions of a boundary you should select, you should take into account what boundary versions are used in any area-level data that you plan to use in your study (e.g. population data, SEIFA or ARIA indices etc). Secondary ED diagnosis codes, ED procedure codes, ‘hospital insurance’ and ‘presenting problem’ are no longer provided. Tips for using Emergency Department data in linkage studies There are no patient names in the Emergency Department Data Collection (EDDC) prior to 2000. After 2000, the proportion of records with patient names increased yearly, to 87.6% in 2005. As names are one of the principal variables used to link records between and within datasets, linkage studies should use ED data from 2005 onwards. The EDDC has substantial limitations. These limitations must be considered when planning a study using ED data, and in particular, when interpreting and presenting the data Data custodian Dr Zoran Bolevich Director Health System Information and Performance Reporting NSW Ministry of Health All questions relating to this dataset should be directed to: Dr Lee Taylor
Departure ready time (departure_ready_time) For the admitted patient, the time at the assessment and initial treatment of the person is completed. For the Non-admitted patient, the time at which the assessment and initial treatment of the person is completed such that if home arrangements of the person (including transport) were available the person could depart. Formerly known as ‘drtime’. Department of Veterans Affairs card type (DVA_card_type) Indicates the type of Veterans Affairs card 1 Card 2 = Gold Card 3 = Orange Card Principal ED Diagnosis (ed_diagnosis_sct, ed_diagnosis_code) The diagnosis or condition established after assessment to be responsible for the person presenting to the Emergency Department. If the person is admitted as an inpatient it is the equivalent of the admission diagnosis. For Cerner FirstNet sites, this variable is captured as “Discharge Diagnosis”. For EDIS and iPM sites it is known as “Principal Diagnosis” Cerner FirstNet sites – SNOMED CT EDIS, iPM and Health-e-care – ICD9 and ICD10 Formerly known as ‘icd1’,’icd10d1’,’snmd1’.