Public Dental Waiting Times Database, 2013-14 to 2016-17; Quality Statement
Data Quality Statement Attributes
Identifying and definitional attributes | |
Metadata item type: | Data Quality Statement |
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Synonymous names: | PDWT NMDS 2013-17 DQS |
METEOR identifier: | 687687 |
Registration status: | AIHW Data Quality Statements, Superseded 09/03/2021 |
Data quality | |
Data quality statement summary: | This data quality statement covers 4 years of data presented in the report A discussion of public dental waiting time information in Australia, 2013–14 to 2016–17, from data collated under an agreement to report against the Public Dental Waiting Times (PDWT) National Minimum Data Set (NMDS).
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Institutional environment: | The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is a major national agency set up by the Australian Government under the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987 to provide reliable, regular and relevant information and statistics on Australia’s health and welfare. It is an independent corporate Commonwealth entity governed by a management board, and accountable to the Australian Parliament through the Health portfolio. The AIHW aims to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians through better health and welfare information and statistics. It collects and reports information on a wide range of topics and issues, ranging from health and welfare expenditure, hospitals, disease and injury, and mental health, to ageing, homelessness, disability and child protection. |
Timeliness: | The reference periods for these data are 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16 and 2016–17. |
Accessibility: | The AIHW will publish data from this collection on the AIHW website. |
Interpretability: | Metadata information for the PDWT NMDS is published in the AIHW’s Metadata Online Registry (METeOR) at the following AIHW web address: |
Relevance: | The purpose of the PDWT NMDS is to collect information about the length of time that patients placed on a public dental waiting list wait for public dental care in Australia. The scope of the NMDS is adults who were placed on selected public dental waiting lists who received or were offered public dental care in the reporting period in Australia. The time between listing date and date of offer, and listing date and date of first visit, for these reporting periods may not reflect current or future waiting times experienced by patients. The availability of clinical resources, demand for services, and client uptake of care are among the variables that will affect these figures throughout routine operations. An increase in the number of services provided to people on the waiting list (or offers of care), especially to people who have been waiting longer, may increase overall waiting times reflected in this collection. This might occur, for example, as a result of additional clinical resources being made available. The data collection excludes people who are treated under jurisdictional priority client schemes, and may also exclude some other people who are not placed on a public dental waiting list for any other reason. Therefore, the waiting times reported are not the median waiting times (and waiting times at the 90th percentile) experienced by all people aged 18 or over who received public dental services. Data are reported by jurisdiction of receipt of dental care, regardless of the jurisdiction of usual residence. |
Accuracy: | For 2013–14 and 2014–15, data are not published for New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. For 2015–16 and 2016–17, data are not published for New South Wales and the Northern Territory. For 2016–17 data are not published for Victoria. Data providers are primarily responsible for the quality of the data they provide, although the AIHW has undertaken basic validation of the data. The AIHW does not adjust data to account for possible data errors or missing or incorrect values; however:
Waiting times of zero days are included in the analysis of listing date to date of offer but are excluded from waiting times calculations for listing date to date of first visit as these are considered to be errors in the data. Only treatments that result in a person’s being removed from a public dental waiting list are considered to be ‘first visits’. As two separate waiting periods are described in this indicator (that is, waiting period from listing date to date of offer, and to date of first visit), the waiting periods calculated may not be based on data relating to the same people. For example, where a record does not record the date of first visit (or the date of offer), the person’s waiting time will be used only in calculating one of the measures. Where a person’s date of offer falls in a different reporting period from their date of first visit, the two separate waiting periods will be reported separately in the relevant reporting periods. Queensland uses the waiting list record history and a date of offer algorithm to calculate the date of offer as there is not a direct date of offer variable. The first date of an appointment made in a course of care is generally used as the date of offer. Where this is not recorded, the date the patient was contacted may be used. In South Australia, there is a large variation between the number of denture care offers and reported first visits due to no dates being reported for first visit under the Pensioner Denture Scheme in South Australia; that is, most cases are excluded. Therefore, caution is advised in interpreting the 50th and 90th percentile waiting times for denture care. In Tasmania, people who do not respond to offers of care are ‘suspended’ from the waiting list. If they later present for care, they are restored to the waiting list in their original position and retain all their previous waiting time, rather than starting a new episode of waiting. Often this places the person immediately at the top of the list, and if the resources are available they will be given an appointment. This policy can result in longer times between listing date and date of first visit and/or date of offer. It may particularly influence the 90th percentile figures. Waiting times reported for denture care in Tasmania do not reflect the totality of clients provided with denture services for Tasmania as people requiring general dental care before having a denture are treated through the general dental care waiting list, after which they start a course of care for a denture. At no point are they added to the denture waiting list. In some states, Indigenous people are not included in the scope as they are treated as a priority group. Waiting times data were suppressed where the number of contributing records was fewer than 20, as waiting times are more likely to be volatile where the records numbers are low. |
Coherence: | The year 2013–14 was the first year of collection of national public dental waiting times data under the agreement to collect PDWT NMDS data. In relation to the ability to compare data over time, and between jurisdictions:
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Data products | |
Implementation start date: | 30/01/2018 |
Source and reference attributes | |
Submitting organisation: | Australian Institute of Health and Welfare |
Relational attributes | |
Related metadata references: | Has been superseded by Public Dental Waiting Times Database, 2019-20; Data Quality Statement AIHW Data Quality Statements, Standard 09/03/2021 See also National Healthcare Agreement: PI 13–Waiting times for public dentistry, 2017 Health!, Superseded 30/01/2018 See also Public dental waiting times NMDS 2013-2018 Health!, Superseded 25/01/2018 |