This group of measures provides information about hospital utilization and may reflect differences in the health of the population and mental health service delivery models as well as variations in the availability and accessibility of specialized, residential and/or ambulatory and community-based health services.
Counts = Total discharges involving mental health and substance use disorders
Percentages = (Count of discharges for breakdown value ÷ Count of discharges across all breakdown values) × 100
Crude rate = (Number of discharges for mental health and substance use disorders ÷ Population estimate) × 100,000
Age-standardized rate = Number of discharges based on the crude rates for each age group and the application of population weights for each age group
Unit of analysis: Mental health and substance use disorder discharges
Discharges by year are based on the date of discharge, not the date of admission. Each discharge represents an episode of care. The data is event-based rather than person-based; individuals may be represented multiple times in the data.
Counts and percentages: Discharges in Canada involving mental health and substance use disorders as the primary diagnosis and/or diagnosis category
Crude rates: Total mid-year population
Discharges in Canada involving mental health and substance use disorders as the primary diagnosis and/or diagnosis category
Comments
The basic unit of observation is the discharge abstract or the record of an inpatient’s stay in a psychiatric or general hospital. The discharge abstract is completed at discharge, which includes, for example, cases where the individual was transferred to another hospital or care setting (e.g., long-term care), left against medical advice or died. Records are grouped into fiscal years based on the individual’s date of discharge from the hospital. If an individual was hospitalized more than once in the same fiscal year, a separate record for each stay was submitted. Hence the basic units of observation are events, not unique patients. If an individual was admitted prior to the beginning of a fiscal year, the days stayed prior to the year of discharge are included in the total days stayed for that event.
In Canada, there is no standard definition of a psychiatric hospital. For the purposes of these measures, psychiatric hospitals are medical hospitals that provide psychiatric services on an inpatient and/or outpatient basis and that have been identified by the provinces or CIHI. Also for the purposes of these measures, a general hospital is a publicly funded hospital that provides primarily for the diagnosis and treatment of hospitalized individuals with a wide range of diseases or injuries. The services of a general hospital are not restricted to a specific age group or a specific recorded sex or gender.