The definition of a start date on which an episode of care commences may differ between settings. Therefore, for the purposes of activity based funding reporting the following definitions apply: Admitted episodes refer to the period of care provided to a consumer who is admitted for care to a specialised psychiatric inpatient service or to a general public hospital for the purposes of receiving mental health care (i.e. the consumer would have a mental health care type). The period of care is commenced when the consumer has an admission and ceases with a discharge. The admission and/or discharge may be formal or statistical. Ambulatory episodes refer to the care provided to consumers in a non-admitted setting and which does not take place in an admitted or residential setting. The service providing the care may be a specialised community-based ambulatory mental health service or it may be a non-specialised non-admitted public hospital service. The commencement of an ambulatory episode will occur in conjunction with a service contact, that may have been triggered by a new referral to community care or, if the consumer has previously been treated by the ambulatory team, the recommencement of care for a specified purpose or goal. Residential episodes refer to the period of care provided to a consumer who is admitted for care to a specialised community-based residential service. This period of care commences with an admission, and ceases with a discharge. An episode reference period may be submitted when an episode continues for more than one financial year. The values for this data element can be derived from existing data collections in the following circumstances: Admitted patients - Episode of admitted patient care—admission date, DDMMYYYY Residential patients - Episode of residential care—episode start date, DDMMYYYY. |