Emergency Department Presentations of Victorian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

Abstract

This paper explains how routinely collected data can be used to examine the emergency department attendances of Victorian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The data reported in the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) for the 2006/2007 financial year were analysed. The presentations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal people were compared in terms of age, gender, hospital location (metropolitan and rural) and presenting condition. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were found to attend the emergency department 1.8 times more often than non-Aboriginal people. While the emergency department presentation rates of metropolitan Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal people were similar, rural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people presented to the emergency department 2.3 times more often than non-Aboriginal people. The injuries or poisonings, respiratory conditions and mental disorders presentation rates of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal population were compared. No previous studies have assessed the accuracy of the Indigenous status and diagnosis fields in the VEMD; therefore the quality of this data is unknown.

Keywords

Aborigines Australian Emergency Service Hospital Hospitals Urban Rural

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Welfare Information Unit (ATSIHWIU) (1999). Assessing the quality of identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in hospital data. Canberra, Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2006). Deaths, Australia 2005. Canberra, ABS.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2007). Population distribution, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2006. Canberra, ABS.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2008). Census of population and housing. Canberra: ABS. Available at: http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/Home/census (accessed 29 June 2008).

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2006). Australia's health 2006. Canberra, AIHW.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2008a). Australia's health 2008. Canberra, AIHW.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2008b). Australian hospital statistics 2006–2007. Canberra, AIHW.

Beaglehole

Bonita

Kjellstrom

(2000). Basic epidemiology. Geneva, World Health Organisation.

Condon

J. R.

Williams

D. J.

Pearce

M. C.

Moss

(1998). Northern Territory hospital morbidity dataset: Validation of demographic data 1997. Territory Health Services: Darwin. Available at: http://www.nt.gov.au/health/health_gains/epidemiology/morbidity_dataset_1997.pdf (accessed 16 March 2008).

10.

Department of Human Services (DHS) (2004). Principles of recording Aboriginal status in Victoria. Melbourne: DHS. Available at: <http://www.health.vic.gov.au/koori/kooriprinciples.doc> (accessed 16 March 2008).

11.

Department of Human Services (DHS) (2005). Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) user manual, 10th ed., July 2005. Melbourne, DHS. Available at: <http://www.health.vic.gov.au/hdss/vemd/2005–06/manual/index.htm> (accessed 16 March 2008).

12.

Department of Human Services (DHS) (2007). Koori health counts 2005/06: Improving Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ICAP) Program. Melbourne, DHS.

13.

Green

(1998). Aboriginal utilisation of an urban emergency department. Emergency Medicine 10: 226–233.

14.

Johnston-Leek

Sprivulis

Stella

Palmer

(2001). Emergency department triage of Indigenous and non-Indigenous patients in tropical Australia. Emergency Medicine Australasia 13(3): 333–337.

15.

Lee

A. H.

Meuleners

L. B.

Zhao

Intrapanya

(2004). Demographic patterns of emergency presentations to Northern Territory public hospitals. Australian Health Review 27(2): 61–68.

16.

Lin

Jagger

Williams

Stewart

Hill

Hommel

Barrett

Abrahams

Torzillo

(1990). Review of hospital casualty services in Aboriginal health: Final report. Sydney, New South Wales.

17.

Marson

McD Taylor

Ashby

Cassell

(2005). Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset: Factors that impact upon the data quality. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 17(2), 104–112.

18.

Moshin

(2002). Is there equity in emergency medical care? A descriptive epidemiological study of emergency department care in New South Wales hospitals (PhD Thesis). Kensington, NSW: School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales.

19.

Thomas

D. P.

Anderson

I. P. S.

(2006). Use of emergency departments by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Emergency Medicine Australasia 18(1): 68–76.

20.

Turner

(1995). Utilisation of hospital and rehabilitation services by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of the Shoalhaven District. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Information Bulletin 20: 55–57.

21.

Young

M. J.

(2001). Assessing the quality of identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Western Australian hospital data. Perth, Health Department of Western Australia.