Canadian Patient Cost Database metadata

Overview

The Canadian Patient Cost Database (CPCD) contains detailed cost data from a subset of health service organizations in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

Detailed costs are submitted to CIHI at the patient level for the following services:

Inpatient
Outpatient
Long-term care
Complex continuing care
Mental health
Rehabilitation

At CIHI, the data is used to annually recalculate our Resource Intensity Weights and to recalibrate the inpatient and outpatient case-mix grouping methodologies. Health service organizations can use their patient-level costs to better understand cost drivers, validate funding and/or make adjustments to services and more accurately plan for related impacts on spending.

To learn more about the impact of patient costing, watch this short video created through a collaboration with Capital District Health Authority in Nova Scotia in 2012.

Data source

The following organizations submit data to the CPCD:

Nova Scotia Health Authority and IWK Health Centre in Nova Scotia
Ontario Ministry of Health
Alberta Health and Wellness
British Columbia (until 2016–2017)

CIHI continues to encourage health service organizations and jurisdictions to submit patient-level cost data.

Data coverage

Depending on the type of care received, the term “patient encounter” can mean:

An inpatient stay
An emergency department, clinic or day surgery visit
The length of time a resident spent in a long-term care facility (similar to inpatient stay, but resident stays often span fiscal years and may include planned absences)
The length of time spent in a mental health facility (similar to an inpatient stay)

Data availability

Data is reported by fiscal year, April 1 to March 31. CPCD data is available on request for inpatient and outpatient encounters only.

Most recent year: 2022–2023
Upcoming year: 2023–2024 (fall 2025)
Historical data: From 2004–2005

Participation in the CPCD varies from year to year and represents only a sample of patients in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. This data cannot be used when complete coverage is important for analysis.

When more complete coverage is required, patient-level costs estimated using data from the Canadian MIS Database (CMDB) are recommended.

For data requests from either the CPCD or CMDB, please complete a data request form or email fsi@cihi.ca for more information.

Classification

Health service organizations that implement a patient costing methodology can report their finances to the CPCD. Patient costing methodologies are activity-based costing accounting methodologies, which are often used in other industries to track detailed costs of specific products and outputs. In health care, this methodology is known as patient costing or case costing.

Financial data is collected based on CIHI's MIS Standards and the MIS Patient Costing Methodology (PDF), where the MIS Standards (Standards for Management Information Systems in Canadian Health Service Organizations) provides the standard to classify expenses by functional centre, and the methodology describes how to allocate expenses to individual patient encounters.

Data elements

Key variables in the CPCD include

Full cost (direct, indirect)
Patient identifier
Linking variables (to link with CIHI’s clinical databases)

Variables and concepts used to capture information in the CPCD are based on the MIS Standards and its companion document, the MIS Patient Costing Methodology (PDF). These standards are used to report management information and to create patient cost data that is ultimately submitted to the CPCD. Health service organizations also use these standards to report departmental-level management information to the Canadian MIS Database.

The Canadian Patient Cost Database Data Submission Specifications provides details on the type of data available in the CPCD and guidelines for data submitters when sending data to the CPCD. To obtain a copy, please email fsi@cihi.ca

Data Quality

CIHI ensures that the quality of the information in our data holdings is suited to its intended uses and that data users are provided with accurate information about data quality. Read more about our Data and Information Quality Program.

CPCD data quality documentation is currently unavailable.

Privacy impact assessment

Privacy impact assessments (PIAs) evaluate and address the privacy impacts of programs and systems.

Go to the Privacy and security page to view the PIA, which contains further information about the purposes, data elements and data sources for this data holding.

Contact us

For further information, please email

help@cihi.ca