NSW Health Home and Community Care Minimum Data Set data collection
The Home and Community Care (HACC) Program is a joint Commonwealth, State and Territory initiative under the auspices of the Home and Community Care Act 1985. In New South Wales, the Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care has the lead role in administering the HACC Program, in partnership with NSW Health and the Ministry of Transport.
The NSW Health HACC Minimum Data Set is required to be collected by all services in receipt of HACC Program funding received from or through the NSW Department of Health and/or an AHS, including brokered NGOs.
Data is reported monthly to the NSW Department of Health. The NSW Health HACC Minimum Data Set is managed by the Demand and Performance Evaluation Branch on behalf of the Primary Health and Community Partnerships Branch.
The NSW Health HACC MDS version 2 data collection has been developed to provide consistent information across NSW Health services about the clients and activities of HACC services. The collection ultimately aims to contribute standardised state and national data that will be used to inform planning and policy developments designed to support frail aged people, people with a disability and their carers so they can remain in the community.
The data elements included in the NSW Health HACC MDS and defined in the Data Dictionary and Collection Guidelines encompass what is considered by HACC Program managers to be the minimum management information requirements related to the:
• characteristics of clients (eg, sex, age, Aboriginal / Torres Strait Islander origin)
• circumstances of clients (eg, where clients live, whether they have a carer)
• characteristics and circumstances of carers (eg, age, sex, Aboriginal / Torres Strait Islander origin)
• assistance received by clients and carers from the HACC Program (eg, source of referral, amounts and types of assistance received).
The NSW Health HACC MDS will make it possible to compare and aggregate information across NSW on the needs, service utilisation and programs provided for frail aged people, people with a disability and their carers, communities and service settings. It will also provide HACC services with access to basic data relating to clients and their carers, their needs and service provision. The data derived from this collection will be considered in conjunction with other information sources (eg, admitted patient data and national surveys) to inform debate, policy decisions and strategies related to the Home and Community Care (HACC) Program.
The collection and reporting requirements for the NSW Health HACC MDS are described in Policy Directive
PD2008_050 Home and Community Care Minimum Data Set Version 2 - Collection & Reporting Requirements which refers to The Data Dictionary and Collection Guidelines for the NSW Health HACC Minimum Data Set data collection.
Click on the links below to access the NSW Health Home and Community Care (HACC) Minimum Data Set (MDS) training documents:
- Orientation Work Book for the NSW Health Home and Community Care (HACC) Minimum Data Set (MDS) version 2
- NSW Health Home and Community Care (HACC) Minimum Data Set (MDS) version 2 Train the Trainer Workshop Presentation
Further information about the NSW Health HACC Minimum Data Set data collection can be obtained by contacting:
HACC Data Co-ordinator
Demand and Performance Evaluation Branch
NSW Department of Health
Locked Bag 961
North Sydney NSW 2059
Tel (02) 9391 9308
Fax (02) 9391 9015
E-Mail: HACCDATA@doh.health.nsw.gov.au