GLOSSARY-
What do the terms in these reports mean?

Admitted Patient

Someone who is an inpatient in a hospital. Sameday patients who are admitted for less than 24 hours are also counted as inpatients but people who attend hospital for outpatient clinics are not.

Casemix Funded

A system of funding hospitals according to the actual number and type of services that they provide. Casemix funding was introduced for most Victorian public hospitals in July 1993.

Coronary Care

A hospital unit with specialised staff and equipment to care for patients with heart disease.

Elective Admission

A planned admission to hospital. Emergency admissions and transfers from other hospitals are not counted as elective admissions.

Elective Surgery

Planned surgery that is not an emergency requiring hospital admission within 24 hours.

Emergency Admission

An unplanned admission to hospital due to unexpected illness or injury that requires urgent care.

Emergency Department

A hospital department that specialises in providing emergency care for people who are in need of urgent care (ambulance cases for example) and people who choose to seek treatment in an emergency department.

Health Care Network

A group of community acute hospitals, psychiatric services, tertiary acute hospitals and aged care services in the metropolitan area that is managed by a single board of directors.

Intensive Care

A hospital unit with specialised staff and equipment to provide continuous care for critically ill, injured or post-operative patients.

Non Sameday Patient

In the context of this report, a non sameday patient is an inpatient who leaves hospital on a later date than when they were admitted.

Separation

When an inpatient leaves a hospital. This is the technical way of counting the number of inpatients treated by a hospital.

Step Down Bed

Hospital beds with specialised staff and equipment to care for patients who no longer need coronary or intensive care but are not yet ready to move to a general hospital ward.

Transfer

When an inpatient is moved from one hospital to another. This might be in order to obtain a specialised treatment not available at the first hospital or because of the patient's preferences.

Waiting List Hospital

A major public hospital that performs elective surgery for public patients and uses a waiting list to properly keep track of people who require elective surgery.