European Commission - Public Health: healthindicators.org

DOCUMENTATION SHEET FOR:

Indicator: 72(b). Selected outpatient visits: registered visits

SHORTLIST sub-division: D) Health interventions: health services

Status: implementation section

Date last modification documentation sheet: 03-06-2010

PDF version of documentation sheet

Operational indicators (Excel-file)

Definition

1. Mean number of registered visits to a dentist or orthodontist per inhabitant per year.

2. Mean number of registered visits to a medical or surgical specialist per inhabitant per year.

3. Mean number of registered visits to a psychologist or psychotherapist per inhabitant per year.

Calculation

National best estimates of mean number of registered visits to: 1) a dentist or orthodontist, 2) a medical specialist 3) psychologist or psychotherapist per inhabitant per year. Visits to a medical or surgical specialist include outpatient and emergency department visits, and visits to doctors at the workplace or school. While general dentists are covered by (1), dental surgeons should be considered medical/surgical specialists and should therefore be included under (2). Age standardization should be done for men and women separately, according to the direct method, using the 1976 WHO European population as standard population (this is the method applied for the Eurostat diagnosis-specific morbidity statistics; see references (document principles and guidelines in CIRCA)).

Relevant dimensions and subgroups

• Country.
• Calendar year.
• Sex.
• Age group:
• for age standardization data must be collected by 5 year age groups (see calculation)
• for data presentations it is required to present the following age groups; 15-64, 65+
• Socio-economic status (see data availability).
• Region (according to ISARE recommendations; see data availability)

Preferred data type and data source

Preferred data type

administrative sources (clinical records, insurance data)

Preferred data source

national data

Data availability

To be established in a data collection pilot which ECHIM will carry out for this indicator in 2010. In the pilot data will be collected by sex and age group, not by socio-economic status and region. The ISARE project on regional data has not collected data on outpatient visits.

Data periodicity

Currently no regular data collection for this indicator exists.

Rationale

Indicator used in assessment of cost and (equity of) access.

Remarks

In the ECHIM data collection pilot each Member State itself decides which is (are) the best data source(s) for calculating a this estimate. Given the fact that not in all MS the health information system is well aligned with the health care system, there will be limitations to the comparability of national estimates resulting from this approach. Therefore ECHIM also uses a European Health Interview Survey (EHIS)-based estimate (see indicator 72a).

References

• Diagnosis specific morbidity statistics, Eurostat, public part of CIRCA
• Health Indicators in the European Regions (ISARE) project

Work to do

Develop recommendations for (work to be done to ensure) regular data collection for this indicator based on the outcomes of the ECHIM data collection pilot.