NEW ZEALAND HEALTH INFORMATION SERVICE

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Scope

Purpose
NNPAC provides national consistent data on non admitted patient (outpatient and emergency department) activity. Its primary use will be for the calculation of Inter District Flows (IDFs) but may also help provide information to measure health outcomes and inform decisions on funding allocations and policy.

Content
Transaction records containing details of the non admitted patient event including date, facility and type of service. All records must have a valid NHI number
Data is submitted electronically by DHBs in an agreed format.

Start date

NNPAC was implemented on 1 July 2006 and contains data from that date.

Guide for use

Data is loaded on a weekly basis and summarised monthly at the type of service (purchase unit) level.
A yearly snapshot of data is taken and used for the Inter District Flow (IDF) process.

Contact information

For further information about this collection or to request specific datasets or reports, contact the NZHIS Analytical Services team, on ph 04 816 2882, fax 04 816 2898, or e-mail inquiries@nzhis.govt.nz.

Collection methods – guide for providers

Data is provided by District Health Boards in an agreed electronic file format and must be sent at least once per month.

Frequency of updates

Electronic files are received and processed weekly at NZHIS.

Security of data

NNPAC is accessed by authorised NZHIS staff for maintenance, data quality, audit and analytical purposes.
Authorised members of the Ministry of Health have access to the data for analytical purposes, via the Business Objects reporting tool and the secure Health Information Network (HIN). Business Objects contains a subset of the data described in the NNPAC Data Dictionary.

Privacy issues

The Ministry of Health is required to ensure that the release of information recognises any legislation related to the privacy of health information, in particular the Official Information Act 1982, the Privacy Act 1993 and the Health Information Privacy Code 1994.
Information available to the general public is of a statistical and non-identifiable nature. Researchers requiring identifiable data will usually need approval from an Ethics Committee.
In 2002 claims, the encrypted NHI number is stored for approximately 70 percent of laboratory test records. (In earlier years, it varied, dropping to as low as 13 percent in 1997 claims.) Identifying information is only held for health providers who request the test and not for the pathologist performing the test.

National reports and publications

NZHIS releases monthly standard reports for DHBs via the HIN.

Data provision

Customised datasets or summary reports are available on request, either electronically or on paper. Staff from the NZHIS Analytical Services team can help to define the specifications for a request and are familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the data.
The NZHIS Analytical Services team also offer a peer review service to ensure that NZHIS data is reported appropriately when published by other organisations.
There may be charges associated with data extracts.


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