Data Source

Registry

Type of Study

Registry

Data gathering method

Hospital admissions and discharge data collected by hospitals and submitted to the Ministry of Health is passed on to Statistik Austria

Conditions of access

Formal agreements (e.g. fees, research contracts, institutional agreements, etc.)

Aggregate data on hospital discharges by age, gender, and state are freely accessible via the online database STATcube; More detailed data is available for a fee from Statistik Austria.

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

Anonymised aggregate data and anonymised microdata

Language issues

The data is only available in German.

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

Base used for sampling

All patients admitted and discharged from care facilities in Austria (only inpatient stays included); Care facilities include regular hospitals, specialized hospitals, facilities for chronic conditions, convalescent homes and maternity facilities.

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

Representative of target group (persons admitted to care facilities in Austria)

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

Further Reading

• "Health Statistics Yearbook, 2011" (Jahrbuch der Gesundheitsstatistik 2011) • "Hospital Discharge Statistics Since 1989" (Spitalentlassungsstatistik ab 1989)

Standardisation

ICD-10

Possibility of linkage among databases

No linkage is possible as data is anonymised from the outset

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

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.