• Rate of days of hospitalization

 
Corresponding Mandatory Objectives

• None

  
Corresponding National Indicators

• None

  
Data Sources (see Resources: Data Sources)
 
Numerator: Hospitalization
Original source: Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)
Distributed by: Provincial Health Planning Database (PHPDB), Health Planning Branch, Ontario MOHLTC
Suggested citation (see Data Citation Notes):
Hospital [In-Patient and/or Day Surgeries] Data [years], Provincial Health Planning Database (PHPDB) Extracted: [date], Health Planning Branch, Ontario MOHLTC
Note: specify in the report whether in-patient discharges or day procedures or both


Denominator: Population Estimates
Original source: Statistics Canada
Distributed by:

Suggested citation (see Data Citation Notes):

* Note: Use the total years of the estimates, including the most recent year, even if not all were used in the analysis. The years used in the analysis should be included in the report itself.

 
ICD Codes  
 

  
Analysis Check List

• Suppress numbers <5 or rates and proportions based on counts less than 5.
• For PHPDB: use Inpatient Discharges table from Hospital section of model, use Sum function on “Acute Care Length of Stay”, “ALC Length of Stay” or “Total Length of Stay” attribute.
• Select on geography of patient (geography could be postal code, postal code FSA, province, county-municipality, county, region, district health council or public health unit) using geography code not geography name. If geography code is not known, “Prompts” can be used or codes can be looked up in “Geo Names” Code Table. Institution geography can also be selected by linking to “Institution #” table.
• In hospital data, ICD-9 codes 800-999 refer to the Injury and Poisoning codes whereas these codes in the mortality data set refer to External Causes of Injury and Poisoning codes (e-codes). E-codes can be accessed by linking to the “External Causes” table but problems with double counting can be encountered.

 
Method of Calculation
 

 
 
Basic Categories

• Age groups: 0-9, 10-19, 20-44, 45-64, 65-74, 75+
• Sex: male, female
• Geographic areas of patient residence: health planning region, public health unit, district health council, county, municipality, forward sortation area (FSA) or postal code.
• ICD Chapter
• Acute Days, Alternative Level of Care (ALC) Days, Total Days

 
Indicator Comments

• The rate of days is strongly correlated with number of available hospital beds and is also affected by other factors not related to health status (availability of home care services, characteristics of physician/hospital, time of year, etc).
• Hospitalizations in psychiatric hospitals are excluded.

  
Definitions
Alternative Level of Care (ALC) – An ALC patient is one who does not require acute care treatment, but is occupying an acute care bed while awaiting placement. The patient is classified as ALC when the physician gives an order to change the patient's status to "Medically Discharged".


Cross-References to Other Sections

• None

 
References

1. Goel V, Iron K, Williams JI. Indicators of health determinants and health status. In: Goel V, Williams JI, Anderson GM, Blackstien-Hirsch P, Fooks C, Naylor CD, editors. Patterns of Health Care in Ontario. The ICES Practice Atlas, 2nd edition. Ottawa: Canadian Medical Association; 1996. p. 5-26.
2. Canadian Institute for Health Information. Abstracting Manual. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Institute for Health Information, 1995.
3. Williams JI, Young W. A summary of studies on the quality of health care administrative databases in Canada (Appendix 1). In: Goel V, Williams JI, Anderson GM, Blackstien-Hirsch P, Fooks C, Naylor CD, editors. Patterns of Health Care in Ontario. The ICES Practice Atlas, 2nd edition. Ottawa: Canadian Medical Association; 1996. p. 339-45.

Date of Last Revision:January 22, 2003.