Data dictionaries

Faster Cancer Treatment Indicators data dictionary

Faster Cancer Treatment Indicators data dictionary

Published March 2014 – updated September 2023

The Faster Cancer Treatment (FCT) indicators were introduced in July 2012.

The Faster Cancer Treatment (FCT) Indicators document outlines the requirements for reporting.  

The document provides:

  • Business rules and data definitions
  • Delay code reporting guidance
  • High suspicion of cancer definitions
  • Tumour specific reporting guidance
  • Use cases.

FCT Indicators data dictionary v6.4 (docx, 1,076 KB)

FCT Indicators data dictionary v6.4 (pdf, 2,002 KB)

General Medical Subsidy Data Mart data dictionary

General Medical Subsidy Data Mart data dictionary
Published 01 October 2003

The General Medical Subsidy data mart (GMS DM) is used by Ministry of Health analysts and DHBs to:

  • monitor contracts with providers
  • support forecasting and setting of annual budgets
  • analyse health needs and assess policy effectiveness.

The GMS data mart contains the fee-for-service payments made to doctors for patient visits that have been processed by the HealthPAC Proclaim system.

The GMS data mart was established in August 2003 and contains data from November 2001.

All data transferred from HealthPAC to the GMS data mart is claim-related data sent by claimants. Definitions in the GMS data mart Data Dictionary are based on the GP Section 88 Notice.

The GMS data mart includes only health events processed by HealthPAC. Most health events for which there are no fee claims are not included in the GMS data mart.

Hepatitis B Screening Programme Data Mart data dictionary

Hepatitis B Screening Programme Data Mart data dictionary
Published 01 October 2003

The Hepatitis B data mart (Hep B DM) was established for the Hepatitis B Screening Programme pilot to support policy formation, performance monitoring, and review. The pilot has been conducted for three years with two primary care providers, and has now been extended to capture secondary care data.

Hep B contains primary care and secondary care information for the Hepatitis B Screening Programme pilot.

Laboratory Claims Data Mart data dictionary

Laboratory Claims Data Mart data dictionary
Published 01 April 2005

The Laboratory Claims data mart (Labs DM) allows the Ministry of Health and DHBs to monitor the primary-care test subsidies.

Labs contains claim and payment information for laboratory tests that have been processed by the HealthPAC General Transaction Processing System (GTPS). It also contains laboratory test information from Medlab South providers.

As at October 2004, this amounted to over 134 million rows of claim and payment data.

 

Medical Warnings System data dictionary

Medical Warnings System data dictionary
Published 01 October 2003
The Medical Warnings System (MWS) is a value-added service closely aligned with the National Health Index. It is designed to warn healthcare providers of the presence of any known risk factors that may be important when making clinical decisions about patient care.

The MWS comprises the following features:

  • medical warnings incorporating adverse medical reactions and significant medical conditions
  • event summaries incorporating identification of the facility where the patient’s medical record is located
  • donor information incorporating donor summaries and healthcare user contact details.

 

Mortality Collection data dictionary

Mortality Collection data dictionary
Published 18 May 2017

The Mortality Collection has been established to provide data for public health research, policy formulation, development and monitoring, and cancer survival studies. A complete data set of each year’s mortality data is sent to the World Health Organization each year to be used in international comparisons of mortality statistics.

The Mortality Collection classifies the underlying cause of death for all deaths registered in New Zealand, including all registered fetal deaths (stillbirths), using the ICD-10-AM 8th Edition and the WHO Rules and Guidelines for Mortality Coding.

Fetal and infant data is a subset of the mortality collection. Extra variables such as gestation and birth weight are collected.

National Booking Reporting System data dictionary

National Booking Reporting System data dictionary
Published 01 July 2014

The National Booking Reporting System (NBRS) provides information by health speciality and booking status on how many patients are waiting for treatment, and also how long they have had to wait before receiving treatment.

The NBRS contains details of all booking status events involving a healthcare user who:

  • receives a priority for an elective medical or surgical service, and
  • is likely to receive publicly funded treatment.

Information is collected about the patient’s date of entry into the system, their assessed priority, and their booking status.

National Booking Reporting System Data Mart data dictionary

National Booking Reporting System Data Mart data dictionary
Published 01 July 2014

The National Booking Reporting System Data Mart (NBRS DM) provides summary statistics for use in the Elective Services Performance Indicator (ESPI) reports. The ESPIs are by district health board (DHB), health speciality and month.

The NBRS DM contains agreement volume contractual data from the Contract Management System, actual inpatient contractual data from the NMDS, and summary outpatient data for patients referred to DHBs, as well as summaries of all booking status events held in the National Booking Reporting System (NBRS).

Information is collected about the patient’s date of entry into the system, their assessed priority, and their booking status.

National Health Index data dictionary

National Health Index data dictionary
Data Dictionary (version 5.3)
Published 01 July 2009

The National Health Index (NHI) is the cornerstone of health information in New Zealand. It was established to provide a mechanism for uniquely identifying every healthcare user (HCU) by assigning each a unique number (known as the NHI number).

The purposes of the NHI include use:

  • by health and disability support services to link health data pertaining to an individual to that individual to avoid mis-assignment of health and disability support information, for example, the wrong laboratory test results
  • by health and disability support services to improve patient privacy protection when transferring an individual’s health data – for example, the receipt of laboratory test results by general practitioners
  • by the Ministry of Health, in an encrypted form, so that data can be used for statistical purposes to report on the state of health of the New Zealand population, and to assist in the development of more effective services
  • by health and disability support services to submit to, or access information from, the Medical Warnings System, for adverse drug warnings and other forms of medical alerts
  • by health and disability support services to identify previous health events, and the possible location of medical records through the Medical Warnings System.

As a registration system, the NHI includes only information needed to identify healthcare users, such as name, address (including domicile code), date of birth, sex and ethnicity. A limited amount of clinical information is available to authorised users of the NHI via the associated Medical Warning System (MWS).

The first national register was the National Master Patient Index, implemented in 1977. This was replaced with the NHI in 1993. Newborn babies have been registered on the national system since 1992.

Coverage is estimated to be 98 percent of the population.

When duplicate records for a healthcare user are identified, they are linked, one of their NHI numbers will be deemed to be the primary (or master), and the others become secondary NHI numbers. For the analysis of healthcare information relating to a unique individual, the primary NHI number should be used. Local systems may use secondary NHI numbers.

National Maternity Collection data dictionary

National Maternity Collection data dictionary
Published 07 November 2011

The National Maternity Collection (MAT) provides statistical, demographic and clinical information about selected publicly-funded maternity services up to nine months before and three months after a birth.

National Minimum Dataset (Hospital Events) data dictionary

National Minimum Dataset (Hospital Events) data dictionary
Published 01 July 2021

The National Minimum Dataset (NMDS) is used for policy formation, performance monitoring, research, and review. It provides statistical information, reports, and analyses about the trends in the delivery of hospital inpatient and day patient health services both nationally and on a provider basis. It is also used for funding purposes.

The NMDS is a national collection of public and private hospital discharge information, including clinical information, for inpatients and day patients. Unit record data is collected and stored. All records must have a valid NHI number.

Data has been submitted electronically in an agreed format by public hospitals since 1993.

The private hospital discharge information for publicly funded events, eg, birth events and geriatric care, has been collected since 1997. Other data is being added as it becomes available electronically.

National Minimum Dataset (Hospital Events) Data Mart data dictionary

National Minimum Dataset (Hospital Events) Data Mart data dictionary
Published 01 July 2018

The National Minimum Dataset (Hospital Events) Data Mart (NMDS DM) is used for policy formation, performance monitoring, research, and review. It provides statistical information, reports, and analyses about the trends in the delivery of hospital inpatient and day-patient health services both nationally and on a provider basis. It is also used for funding purposes.

The NMDS DM is a national collection of public and private hospital discharge information, including clinical information, for inpatients and day patients. Unit record data is collected and stored. All records must have a valid NHI number.

Data has been submitted electronically in an agreed format by public hospitals since 1993.

The private hospital discharge information for publicly funded events, eg, birth events and geriatric care, has been collected since 1997. Other data is being added as it becomes available electronically.

National Non-Admitted Patient Collection Data Mart data dictionary

National Non-Admitted Patient Collection Data Mart data dictionary
National Non-Admitted Patient Collection Data Mart data dictionary
The National Non-Admitted Patient Collection provides data on non-admitted patient (outpatient and emergency department) activity.

New Zealand Cancer Registry data dictionary

New Zealand Cancer Registry data dictionary

Published 01 July 2015

The New Zealand Cancer Registry Data Dictionary is being reviewed.

For inquiries, please contact data-enquiries@health.govt.nz


The New Zealand Cancer Registry is a population-based register of all primary malignant tumours diagnosed in New Zealand, excluding squamous and basal cell skin cancers.

Primary Health Organisation Enrolment Collection Data Mart data dictionary

Primary Health Organisation Enrolment Collection Data Mart data dictionary
Published 30 September 2011

The Primary Health Organisation Enrolment Collection is a national collection that holds primary healthcare patient enrolment data.

The purpose of the collection is

  • to assist PHOs, DHBs and the Ministry of Health in reporting and monitoring patient enrolment under the Primary Healthcare System
  • to provide PHOs, DHBs, MoH and health researchers with population data to assist with population health research
  • to assist PHOs in examining and improving the quality of their enrolment information.

Programme for the Integration of Mental Health Data (PRIMHD) data dictionary and datamart diagram

Programme for the Integration of Mental Health Data (PRIMHD) data dictionary and datamart diagram
Published 01 December 2010

The Programme for the Integration of Mental Health Data (PRIMHD) is a national database of information collected by the Ministry of Health to support policy formation, monitoring and research.

PRIMHD expanded the now disestablished, Mental Health Information National Collection (MHINC) to include information on outcomes in the form of the Health of the Nations Outcome Scale (HoNOS); a clinician-rated measure of health, well-being and circumstances. MHINC was a national collection of mental health and alcohol and drug services provided from July 2000 to June 2008.  PRIMHD went live on 1 July 2008.

PRIMHD collects information on the provision of secondary mental health and alcohol and drug services funded by the government.  This includes secondary inpatient, residential, outpatient and community services provided by DHBs and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs).  While all the DHBs have been reporting to PRIMHD since 1 July 2008, only a small number of NGOs have been reporting this long.  However, as at November 2011, 214 (82%) of NGOs were reporting, with the remainder due to come online in the next few months.

PRIMHD does not include information on the provision of primary mental health care, for example from General Practitioners (GPs).

PRIMHD includes details of services provided, as well as demographic variables (such as sex, age and ethnicity), diagnosis, legal status, referral/discharge and outcomes data.