Contents >
V4.0 1999/2000 VEMD User Manual
Acknowledgments
EDIS Review Committee representatives:
Dr Michael Ackland - Epidemiology Unit, Public Health Division, Department of Human Services
Mr Robert Barley - HAS Solutions
Ms Sue Brennan - Quality Branch, Acute Health Division, Department of Human Services
Mr Graeme Vaughan - Information Management, Corporate Resources, Department of Human Services
Dr Peter Cameron - Emergency Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital
Ms Shahn Campbell - RAPID Project, Department of Human Services
Mr Alex Currell - Metropolitan Ambulance Service
Mr Neil Currie - Emergency Nurses Association Victoria Inc
Mr Simon Darlington - Ambulance Services, Corporate Strategy, Department of Human Services
Dr Andrew Dent - Emergency Medicine, St Vincent’s Hospital
Dr Linas Dzuikas - Emergency Medicine, The Alfred
Dr Joe Epstein - Office of the co-ordinator of Emergency and Critical Care Services
Dr Mark Fitzgerald - Emergency Medicine, The Alfred
Ms Jenelle Hurley - Health Data Standards & Systems Unit, Acute Health, Dept of Human Services
Mr Mark Gill - Health Data Standards & Systems Unit, Acute Health, Dept of Human Services
Dr Marcus Kennedy - Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Victoria Faculty
Ms Jane McKercher - Quality Branch, Acute Health, Department of Human Services
Ms Wendy Porteous - Emergency Nursing, The Northern Hospital
Mr Guy Sansom - Emergency Medicine Training, St Vincent’s Hospital
Dr Mark Sinclair-Stokes - Monash University Accident Research Centre
Ms Martine Thompson - Information Systems, Southern Health Care Network
Dr Jeff Wassertheil - Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Victoria Faculty
Ms Anne Wregg - Emergency Nurses Association Victoria Inc
Background to the Collection
The VEMD is an initiative of significant importance, undertaken by the Department of Human Services (DHS) in collaboration with the Victorian Emergency Department’s Association, the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Victoria Faculty, the Emergency Nurse’s Association and the Monash University Accident Research Centre. The collection of patient level data provides valuable information for epidemiological purposes, for the operation of emergency departments, clinical research and quality improvement and for performance monitoring and planning.
The Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset can aid in the improvement of treatment and prevention of illness and injury. Effective use of the information provided by the dataset will also enable hospitals to improve the management of patients and staffing resources.
The VEMD also enables categorisation of injuries and poisonings according to factors important for injury control and necessary for defining and monitoring injury control targets. It also provides the basis for injury costing and the identification of cases for further in-depth research.
This manual acts as a reference source for data input to the Minimum Dataset. It is intended to provide clinical, nursing and clerical staff with the level of detail necessary to accurately record patient demographics, diagnoses, procedures, injury surveillance and other data. Where necessary, explanatory notes are provided to ensure consistent interpretation of the Dataset fields.
Software suppliers should bear in mind that this manual describes the data as it should be transmitted to the Department of Human Services. The hospitals' systems need not exactly replicate the manual in all respects. However, the interface must be capable of formatting the data appropriately for transmission to DHS.
Campus Code, Statistical Local Area (SLA), Country of Birth, Preferred Language and ICD-10-AM files are available to software suppliers in soft copy excel format. These reference files can be requested by contacting the HDSS Help Desk or by accessing the VEMD web site, refer page x for details.
Continuing Development of VEMD
Fields and codes within fields will be subject to ongoing monitoring, therefore annual reviews of the VEMD will be undertaken to effect necessary changes.
Comments and suggestions regarding the VEMD are welcomed and should be directed to:
VEMD Coordinator
Health Data Standards & Systems Unit
Acute Health Division
Department of Human Services
17/555 Collins Street
MELBOURNE 3000
Should you require assistance with any aspect of the VEMD implementation, please contact the HDSS Helpdesk on (03) 9616 8141. You are required to log your call by leaving your name, number and a short message. Your call will be returned as soon as possible. Alternatively contact can be made via the HDSS/VEMD Help Desk e-mail address at submit.vemd@dhs.vic.gov.au. E-mail queries will be checked regularly and answered promptly. From 1 July 1999, monthly patient level data files should also be forwarded to this e-mail address.
VEMD related documents and reference files are also located on the VEMD web site at www.dhs.vic.gov.au/ahs/hdss/vemd.htm
Version 1.0 (July 1995)
Following substantial input from Victorian members of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, National Injury Surveillance Unit and many others, the first version of the Dataset was published.
Version 1.0 (July 1995, including addendum and errata October 1995)
Corrections and additions to the options available under certain fields and codes were published as addendum and errata in October 1995.
Version 2.0 (July 1997)
This update included corrections and additions to the options available under several fields and codes of the previous version.
Version 3.0 (July 1998)
This update included clarification of fields and codes of the previous version relevant to the central collection of data, details of reporting requirements, edit and business rules and a summary of ICD code changes with codes mapped to ICD-10-AM.
Version 4.0 (July 1999)
This update included revisions to existing data items, the inclusion of four new fields to the dataset, the implementation of new edits and business rules and details of reporting requirements, policies and procedures.
Data Collection and Reporting Requirements
Data Definition
The definition of data elements and code sets are as published throughout this manual.
Period of Extract
VEMD patient level data for a calendar month should be sent within 10 days of the end of that month. Hospitals are required to correct data and resubmit the entire monthly file within one week of the receipt of the DHS rejection file. The entire month's file should be resubmitted for further editing until all records pass the editing process. A clean monthly file should be received by DHS by the end of the following month. For further details, refer to VEMD Data Quality and Timeliness, below.
All records for those patients who depart in a calendar month should be submitted in a single monthly file. That is, if a patient attends the emergency department on the 30th of April 1999 and departs on the 1st of May 1999, the record should be submitted in the May file, NOT the April file. Refer to Policies for Collection of Data - Submission and Re-submission of VEMD data.
Format
Monthly VEMD patient level data files should be sent on a DOS formatted diskette or via e-mail, in tab delimited ASCII format with each record separated by a carriage return and line feed.
Data items should be in the order as specified in the Version 4.0 Manual, VEMD - Structure. All fields should be provided for every record including those instances where the data provision is not mandatory. In cases where data in non-mandatory fields is not available the field position should still be denoted by a tab.
Data Collection and Reporting Requirements continued
Also note in relation to data format that:
- Procedures will count as one field even though the Manual allows for the transmission of up to 30 Procedure codes.
- Each Procedure code should be separated by a left curly bracket {.
- The text for the Description of Injury Event does not need to be enclosed in quotation marks (i.e. "textual information") due to the use of tabs for separating fields. Quotation marks may be used to emphasise words within the text, if desired.
- Free text fields may still be collected locally, however, they should not be sent to the Department.
- Data transmitted to the Department should only include the codes specified in this Manual. Local systems may allow for collection of data through the use of codes, acronyms or text. These should then be converted into appropriate VEMD Version 4.0 format for transmission to the Department.
- ICD-10-AM diagnosis codes must be utilised for submission.
Progress of the emergency component of the RAPID Data Warehouse will continue throughout the 1999/2000 financial year. From 1 July 1999, hospitals will have the option of submitting data utilising the modified VEMD tab delimited format (as specified in this manual) or the alternative Health Level Seven (HL7) data transmission format. It is anticipated that hospitals will be required to submit data utilising the HL7 format by 1 July 2000. Hospitals interested in testing the HL7 format should contact Shahn Campbell on 9616-8449 or via email at shahn.campbell@dhs.vic.gov.au.
Until further notice, files should be forwarded to DHS utilising the new VEMD e-mail address at submit.vemd@dhs.vic.gov.au. Queries can also be forwarded to this address and will be checked regularly and answered promptly. Accordingly reports will continue to be forwarded via e-mail or disk from DHS.
Aggregate paper based reports, which contain information derived from the VEMD, are to continue to be forwarded to the Quality Branch of DHS in accordance with current processes. These reports will eventually become obsolete when the electronic data system has been fully tested and the aggregate reports can be satisfactorily extracted from the system.
The current DHS electronic system and the VEMD component of the RAPID Data Warehouse will operate in parallel until the Warehouse is operating at an optimum level. The emergency attendance data held in the Warehouse will continue to be known as the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD).
This Version 4.0 VEMD manual contains the specification for the modified VEMD format. Refer to the document Victorian Health Level 7 (HL7) DWH and ODS Interface Specification for details on the HL7 messaging protocol.
Data Quality and Timeliness
Sections of the extract below have been taken from the 1999/2000 Policy and Funding Guidelines.
Improvements to data quality and timeliness of submission to the VEMD will be encouraged in the 1999-2000 financial year.
During 1998/99, edits were implemented in a staggered manner with new edits introduced or existing edits changed from warning to rejection as time progressed. Additional edits as specified in this manual will take effect from 1 July 1999. Where ever possible, edits should be maintained within the emergency department’s in-house system to minimise rejection of records from the Department’s editing program. Refer to Edits and Business Rules, Appendix 1a, and Appendix 1b, for further information.
In addition, as part of the VEMD quality assurance processes, the Department will be comparing the VEMD electronic data with aggregate paper based reports to check consistency. This process has commenced for data supplied from October 1998 onwards. If inconsistencies are found hospitals will be informed and requested to respond by resubmitting corrected data and/or providing the Department with a report outlining the reasons for the inconsistency.
Timelines have also been established for:
- 1999-2000 electronic data and aggregate paper based reports
- electronic patient level data for the period Aug 1998 - June 1999 inclusive
- hospitals’ response to inconsistencies in the comparison of electronic data and aggregate paper based reports.
Timelines are detailed in the table below.
| Data/Reports | Timeline |
| Submission of monthly patient level data electronic files for 1999-2000 | by the 10th day of the following month (ie Aug data by 10th Sep) |
| Monthly 1999-2000 electronic file passed all edits (ie re-submission process completed) | by the end of the following month (ie Aug data by 30th Sep) |
| Submission of aggregate paper based reports for 1999-2000 | by the 10th day of the following month (ie Aug data by 10th Sep) |
| Electronic data from Aug 1998-Jun 1999 submitted and passed all associated edits | by 30th Sep 1999 |
| Response to inconsistencies in the comparison of electronic data and paper based aggregate reports | by the date outlined in Departmental correspondence |
Hospitals participating in the emergency services component of the Hospital Access Program have these timelines linked to incentive funding. Refer to 1999/2000 Policy & Funding Guidelines for further information.
DHS Department of Human Services
DWH Data Warehouse
RAPID Redevelopment of Acute and Psychiatric Information Directions (Project)
ODS Operational Data Store
HL7 Health Level 7
ICD-10-AM Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, Australian Modification
NHDD National Health Data Dictionary
VEMD Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset
HAP Hospital Access Program