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Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) metadata

Overview

Originally developed in 1963, the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) captures administrative, clinical and demographic information on hospital discharges (including deaths, sign-outs and transfers). Some provinces and territories also use the DAD to capture day surgery.

Data extracted from the DAD is used to populate other CIHI databases, including

Find out more about acute inpatient care, including reports and analyses based on DAD data.

Data source

Data is received directly from acute care facilities or from their respective health/regional authority or ministry/department of health. Acute inpatient care reporting is mandated in all provinces and territories except Quebec. Submission of day surgery data to the DAD is mandated in Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Data from Quebec is submitted to CIHI directly by the ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec. This data is appended to the DAD to create the Hospital Morbidity Database (HMDB).

Data coverage

The DAD contains demographic, administrative and clinical data on all separations (with the exception of stillbirths and cadaveric donors) from acute inpatient facilities in all provinces and territories except Quebec.

See Data Source for information on Quebec.

It also includes demographic, administrative and clinical data on all patient separations from day surgery facilities in some provinces and territories.

Quarterly submission targets

To improve data timeliness, facilities are encouraged to meet quarterly submission targets of 60 days after the end of each quarter:

  • Fiscal year 2024–2025 
    • Q1: target for April-to-June-2024 discharges is August 31, 2024 
    • Q2: target for July-to-September-2024 discharges is November 30, 2024
    • Q3: target for October-to-December-2024 discharges is February 28, 2025 
    • Q4 (same as jurisdictional year-end deadline)
      • Target for January-2025-to-March-2025 discharges is May 31, 2025 (Ontario only) 
      • Target for January-2025-to-March-2025 discharges is June 30, 2025 (all other jurisdictions) 

Data availability

Data is available for the following fiscal years:

  • Next release: 2024–2025 
  • Provisional data: 2024–2025 
    • Q1 (April to June) 2024–2025, available September 15, 2024
    • Q2 (July to September) 2024–2025, available December 15, 2024
    • Q3 (October to December) 2024–2025, available March 15, 2025
    • Q4 (January to March) 2024–2025, available July 2025; this is the complete closed-year data
  • Most recent closed-year data: 2023–2024
  • Historical series: 1994–1995 to 2023–2024

For data requests, please complete and submit the online data inquiry form.

Data elements

The DAD contains demographic, administrative and clinical data for

  • Hospital inpatient discharges; and
  • Day surgery encounters.

Below is the link to the data elements document:

More detailed information on the DAD data elements can be found in the DAD Abstracting Manual.

Classification

As early as 2001–2002, some provinces and territories began using ICD-10-CA and CCI to code diagnoses and interventions in hospital separations reported to the DAD. Since 2004–2005, all DAD records have been reported in ICD-10-CA and CCI; prior to that, ICD-9, CCP and ICD-9-CM were used.

The most recent classifications and related products can be found on the Classifications resource page. 

To request classifications and related products from 2006 to 2012, send an email  to help@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.

Below are links to our data quality documents:

Data quality documentation

Open-year data quality test specifications

Additional data quality resources

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

How to cite:

Canadian Institute for Health Information. Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) metadata . Accessed April 28, 2025.