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The Admitted Patient Entry & Transmission System (APET)

APET is Internet based software used to enter admitted patient data for submission to the Victorian Admitted Episode Dataset (VAED).

Access to the APET Internet site is restricted by the HDSS unit

NEW sites wishing to load the APET system, will need to obtain login information and passwords, by contacting the HDSS Help Desk on (03) 9096 8141 or email HDSS.HelpDesk@dhs.vic.gov.au

The 2008-09 APET User Manual, 1 July 2008 (PDF File 393KB) can be downloaded and printed for your use.

Any queries regarding APET, should be directed to the HDSS Help Desk via the details listed above.

Background to the APET System

Under the terms of the relevant health service agreements or legislation, the Department of Human Services requires all acute hospitals registered under the Health Services Act 1988 to report relevant admitted patient activity to the Victorian Admitted Episode Dataset (VAED) using data formats and transmission protocols specified by the Department. The term 'acute hospitals' refers to public, private and denominational hospitals, acute facilities in rehabilitation and extended care (subacute) facilities, day procedure centres and designated acute psychiatric units in public hospitals. Residential care (nursing homes), hostels, supported residential services and state managed psychiatric institutions are excluded from reporting to the VAED.

The VAED comprises demographic, clinical and administrative details for every admitted episode of care occurring in Victorian acute hospitals. It is compiled in financial years (July to June).
In order to maintain and protect patient privacy, only the minimum data required for effective monitoring, funding and analysis purposes are collected. Information such as patient name and street address is not collected for the VAED.

Among other things, VAED data are used for:

• Morbidity monitoring;
• Casemix funding and determining trends in hospital casemix;
• Performance management;
• Nation Health Information Agreement;
• Epidemiological studies and clinical research;
• Health care planning (estimating the need for special care/specialised equipment);
• Making projections for workforce planning.

PRS/2 is the interface between a hospital's in-house Patient Management System and the VAED. All PRS/2 processing is managed by an external company providing facilities management on behalf of the Department.
Many computer software companies provide for PRS/2 data transmission through software of varying complexity, cost and hardware requirements. The Admitted Patient Entry and Transmission (APET) System was developed to satisfy the strong industry requirement, particularly among smaller hospitals and day procedure centres, for a simple stand-alone VAED data entry system.

Purpose of the APET System

The Admitted Patient Entry and Transmission (APET) software has been developed for hospitals that require a simple data entry system, in order to transmit data to the VAED in the current file format. The system can be used either as a temporary measure or a long-term solution.

APET is NOT a Patient Management System; it is simply an interface, via the Internet, between the health care facility and the Department's VAED database.

APET uses a combination of free-text fields and drop-down menus containing relevant VAED codesets, without descriptors, and as such it is necessary for information to be keyed into the database from a previously completed data entry form. To maximise efficiency, it is recommended that a form with the VAED data items in a similar sequence to the APET layout be utilised.

Functions of the APET System

Data Entry

A transmission to PRS/2 potentially has seven components. Three of these components are automatically generated by the APET system during the extraction process. These are the:

• Header (H4) Record
• Trailer (T4) Record 1
• Trailer (U4) Record 2.

The four remaining components are controlled by the health care facility and contain the demographic, diagnosis and treatment information for the episode of care. These components are the:

• Episode (E4) Records
• Diagnosis (X4) Records
• Sub-Acute (S4) Records
• DVA/TAC (V4) Records.

Each of these records provides data on individual (de-identified) admitted patient episodes of care.
Private hospitals and Day Procedure Centres are not required to submit Sub Acute (S4) or DVA/TAC (V4) records for their admitted patients.
Refer to the VAED Manual, Section 5 - Compilation & Transmission and Section 7 - Control Reports & Reconciliation for further clarification.

It is important to note that as APET is designed to be compatible with a diverse range of requirements from a variety of facilities it is therefore not feasible to tailor individual data items to the requirements of specific users.

User Editing

Once a record has been entered onto the APET System, the data may be added to, amended or deleted by the user.

System Editing

The APET system performs simple editing checks, such as those listed below, to ensure that only valid codes can be entered into data fields:

• Existence of codes in reference files
• Field lengths
• Existence of entries into mandatory data items.

The system is not currently capable of performing more complex editing verifications such as cross editing between data items. For example, it does not cross edit a diagnosis code(s) against a patient's age or sex; potentially allowing invalid combinations. Therefore it is important for APET users to ensure a high degree of accuracy during data collection and data entry. Errors will be identified in the Transmitted Transaction Report generated when the extraction file is processed.

Data Extraction

Records entered onto the APET system must be extracted from the database into a transmission file for submission for processing.

Facilities are to complete an extraction of entered data at least once a month, although extractions can be performed as often as is feasible for the facility provided that:

• The entered dates for the start and end of the extraction are in the same calendar month;
• The last day of the month is used as the end date for an extraction at least once.

Minimum Configuration

For APET to work effectively, you will need access to the internet on a regular basis.

Facilities using the internet to access the APET system must be using Internet Explorer 5.5 or better (or equivalent software).

It is not necessary for the access to be within the facility but it must be in a secure environment to maintain the confidentiality of data being entered into the system. Unauthorised persons must not have access to the APET system or the facility's documentation.

For general assistance in using this software and queries relating to PRS/2 and the VAED, please contact the HDSS Help Desk:

Telephone 9096 8141
Fax 9096 7743
Email HDSS.HelpDesk@dhs.vic.gov.au