Department of Health

Health data quality

Data quality principles underpin the Department of Health data collection processes. These principles are based on the dimensions of quality from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Data Quality Framework. They consist of:

  • institutional environment
  • relevance
  • timeliness
  • accuracy
  • coherence
  • interpretability
  • accessibility.

More information about the quality dimensions is available on the Australian Bureau of StatisticsExternal Link website.

A combination of input editing and output editing is undertaken to maintain a high level of data quality measured against these dimensions.

The department provides independent audits of unit record data reported by health services to key Victorian datasets managed by the Victorian Agency for Health InformationExternal Link (VAHI). The purpose of the Health Data Integrity Program is to:

  • Mitigate risks associated with reporting of inaccurate performance and activity data to the department;
  • Ensure consistency in health services’ approach to reporting key data elements;
  • Assist health services with improving compliance with various departmental policies, and;
  • Promote awareness of data integrity issues and encourage a culture of improvement.

In addition to editing and auditing activities, the department undertakes annual changes process to maintain the relevancy of health data.

Performance Indicators for Coding Quality

The department has enterprise licences with Beamtree to provide public hospitals with quality assessment tools to support high quality clinical coding reported to the VAED.

The licences provide public hospitals access to:

  • Performance Indicators for Coding Quality (PICQTM) which uses a set of indicators to assess the accuracy of clinical coding against the Australian Coding Standards (ACS) and coding conventions
  • Relative Indicators for Safety and Quality (RISQTM) which assesses the accuracy of hospital-acquired complications (HACs) coding, providing coding quality surveillance and benchmarking against peers and best practice

Public hospitals access their numerator reports via the Beamtree portals. Under the enterprise licence, coded data for review by the public hospital is refreshed monthly. Hospitals wishing to have full licences for PICQ and RISQ must purchase their own licence from BeamtreeExternal Link .

For more information on clinical coding resources, see the VAHI websiteExternal Link .

Reviewed 20 March 2025

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Contact details

For information and advice about standards, specifications and data quality processes for the VAED, VEMD, ESIS, AIMS, VINAH and VPDC. 

HDSS Helpdesk Department of Health

hdss.helpdesk@health.vic.gov.au
For more information and advice about clinical costing in Victoria's public hospitals

Victorian Cost Data Collection Department of Health

VCDCassist@health.vic.gov.au
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