Highlights for these Quick Stats are available up to 2011–2012, by fiscal year, in Trends in Acute Inpatient Hospitalizations.

Name of report

General description of the report of interest

Data source(s)

Database(s) from which the data for the report of interest is derived

Statistic

Figures available in the report of interest (e.g., number of discharges, average length of stay)

Available breakdowns

All possible methods by which the data for the report of interest may be grouped (e.g., by sex, by five-year age group)

Inclusions

Characteristics of records included in the data for the report of interest

Exclusions

Characteristics of records excluded from the data for the report of interest

Methodology

Analytical approach used to calculate the figures presented in the report of interest

Important notes

Additional information that is relevant to the report of interest (e.g., coverage in a particular fiscal year)

Interpretation

Additional notes to aid in understanding the information provided in each report

Contact details

Where to go to get more information on these reports

 

Name of report

Number of Surgical Discharges

Data source(s)
  • Discharge Abstract Database (DAD), Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)
  • Hospital Morbidity Database (HMDB), CIHI
  • Fichier des hospitalisations MED-ECHO, ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (see Important notes below)

Statistic

Number of inpatient surgical discharges

Available breakdowns
  • Discharge fiscal year (1995–1996 to 2011–2012)
  • Province/territory of facility
  • National (excludes Quebec prior to 2006–2007)

Inclusions
  • Discharges from acute care institutions in Canada

For 1995–1996 to 2008–2009:

  • Most Responsible Provider Service is a surgical specialty and at least one non-abandoned and non-out-of-hospital intervention is coded on the patient’s abstract

For  2009–2010 to 2011–2012:

  • The presence of any CCI intervention code listed on the CMG+ Intervention Partition List (see Interpretation below) which was not abandoned and not performed out-of-hospital

Exclusions
  • Newborns (see Important notes below)
  • Stillbirths
  • Cadaveric donors

For  1995–1996 to 2008–2009:

  • Obstetrics/newborn cases: Most Responsible Provider Service = Obstetrics and Gynecology and Main Patient Service is an obstetrics or newborn service

For  2009–2010 to 2011–2012:

  • Obstetric/newborn cases: Records with a Section 5 CCI code (obstetric/fetal intervention) recorded anywhere on the abstract

Methodology
  • This indicator is the count of the number of records that meet the above criteria.

Important notes
  • The methodology to identify inpatient surgical discharges changed substantially as of 2009–2010; therefore, figures prior to 2009–2010 are not comparable with figures for 2009–2010 onwards.
  • Geography represents the province/territory where the hospital is located.
  • Surgical discharges from acute care institutions in a given province/territory may include non-residents of that particular province/territory or of Canada.
  • Prior to 1999–2000, Nunavut submitted its acute inpatient hospitalization data to CIHI as part of the Northwest Territories. In this report, inpatient hospitalizations prior to 1999–2000 that were captured under Northwest Territories from the region that is now represented as Nunavut were isolated for trending purposes.
  • In 2002–2003, Nunavut did not submit discharge data to CIHI. As such, Canadian figures for 2002–2003 do not include Nunavut and are not comparable with figures from other fiscal years.
  • One hospital in New Brunswick did not submit four periods of data in 2004–2005.
  • Two hospitals in Alberta did not submit two periods of data in 2005–2006 and a third hospital did not submit three periods; one hospital in Alberta did not submit three periods of data in 2006–2007.
  • Two hospitals in Ontario did not submit any period of data from 2009–2010 to 2011–2012.
  • Quebec data from 2006–2007 to 2009–2010 was sourced from MED-ECHO. Quebec data from 2010–2011 onwards was sourced from the HMDB. Prior to 2006–2007, Quebec data is not presented since information to define surgical specialty is unavailable. As such, Canadian figures prior to 2006–2007 do not include Quebec and are not comparable with the data from 2006–2007 onwards.
  • There is some inconsistency from year to year among provinces/territories in newborn coding. In some provinces/territories, “newborns” includes those born in the reporting facility, and those born outside the reporting facility but admitted to that facility within 24 hours of birth.
    Therefore, the figures presented here exclude

This will result in a slight undercount of discharges.

    • All newborns born in the reporting facility; and
    • Some newborns born outside the reporting facility but admitted to that facility within 24 hours of birth.

Interpretation

For  1995–1996 to 2008–2009:

  • Inpatient surgical discharges capture the non-obstetric/non-newborn patient population that was primarily treated by a surgeon during the inpatient hospital stay.
  • A surgical discharge is identified by the presence of a surgical specialty as the most responsible provider service (e.g., general surgery, orthopedic surgery, colorectal surgery) where at least one intervention is coded on the patient’s abstract.

For  2009–2010 to 2011–2012:

  • Inpatient surgical discharges capture the non-obstetric/non-newborn patient population where a CCI intervention code from the CMG+ Intervention Partition List is present.
  • Case Mix Groups+ (CMG+) are the foundation of the acute care inpatient grouping methodology, which aggregates patients with similar clinical and resource utilization characteristics. (For more information, please refer to the CMG+ page.) In this methodology, cases are directed toward either an intervention or diagnosis partition, based on the presence/absence of select CCI codes.
  • The CMG Intervention Partition List is based on the ICD-10-CA and CCI coding classification system; this list is updated annually, with the most changes occurring when there is a version update to the ICD-10-CA and CCI coding classification system (typically every three years).

Contact details

 

For more information, see Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) metadata or
Hospital Morbidity Database (HMDB) metadata . You can also send an email to cad@cihi.ca

For assistance in using interactive CIHI data, send an email to help@cihi.ca.