NEW ZEALAND HEALTH INFORMATION SERVICE

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Introduction

The Guide to NZHIS National Collections is a new publication that has been developed for anyone who requires a general overview of one or more of the NZHIS national collections.

For each of the collections the following information is provided: information recorded within the collection, issues relating to security of data and privacy, start date of the collection, who provides the data, and reporting and data provision arrangements. For a detailed description of the template used in this document, refer to the Appendix.

For more detailed information about the data available within each of the national collections, refer to the relevant Data Dictionary.

National health information principles

The guiding principles for national health information are:

• the need to protect patient confidentiality and privacy
• the need to collect data once, as close to the source as possible, and use it as many times as required to meet different information requirements, in keeping with the purpose for which it was collected
• the need for standard data definitions, classifications and coding systems
• the requirement for national health data to include only that data which is used, valued and validated at the local level
• the need for connectivity between health information systems to promote communication and integrity
• the need to address Māori health disparities.

Authority for collection of health information

The Ministry of Health’s mandate to collect health information is set out in legislation, in particular, in section 22 of the Health Act 1956, section 139A of the Hospitals Act 1957, and the Cancer Registry Act 1993. The collection, storage and use of health information is also governed by the Privacy Act 1993, the Health Information Privacy Code 1994, and the Injury Prevention and Compensation Act 2001.

List of the collections in the guide

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• General Medical Subsidy Datamart (GMS)
• Hepatitis B Screening Programme (Hep B)
• Laboratory Claims Data Warehouse (Labs)
• Maternity and Newborn Collection (MNIS)
• Medical Warnings System (MWS)
• Mental Health Information Collection (MHDW)
• Mental Health Information National Collection (MHINC)
• Mortality Collection
• National Booking Reporting System (NBRS)
• National Booking Reporting System Data Warehouse (NBRS DW)
• National Health Index (NHI)
• National Immunisation Collection (NIR)
• National Minimum Dataset (Hospital Events) (NMDS)
• National Non-Admitted Patient Collection (NNPAC)
• New Zealand Cancer Registry (NZCR)
• Pharmaceutical Collection (Pharms)
• Primary Health Organisation Enrolment Collection (PHO)
• Appendix – Format for national collection definition