Welcome to VACS

The Victorian Ambulatory Classification and Funding System (VACS) is an outpatient classification and monitoring system used in the funding of 19 Victorian public hospitals.  The system was introduced in 1997 as a form of casemix model for outpatient services.  It provides a more equitable and accountable system than the historically based outpatient non-admitted grants provided to Victorian public hospitals prior to the introduction of VACS. In addition to VACS, smaller Victorian public hospitals remain funded through the traditional non-admitted outpatient grants.

VACS hospitals report patient visits as either bundled encounters, or occasions of service.  Encounters refer to visits within one of the 35 VACS weighted medical/surgical clinic categories, whereas occasions of services refer to visits within one of the 11 VACS Allied Health unweighted categories.  The department routinely calculates the VACS weights for the 35 medical/surgical clinic categories using costing data provided by VACS hospitals, to determine annual budgets and targets.  Allied Health targets and budgets are calculated at a common set rate.

Hospitals are required to maintain a VACS clinic schedule which describes and maps their clinics to the VACS categories.  New and revised clinics are submitted to the department on the VACS Notification form throughout the year. The department continually monitors and updates VACS schedules and once a year provides a summary of proposed new clinics to the VACS Clinical Panel (comprising eminent clinicians from the field) for formal approval.  Hospitals report clinic activity through the Agency Information Management System (AIMS), an on-line entry system and reporting facility.

Contact: Nermin Songur (03) 9096 7897 or Teresa Barton (03) 9096 7221