Access to Specialist Inpatient Bed Within Seven Days During the Reporting Year

Identifying Attributes

Care Settings
Palliative Care
Country
Ireland
Publishing Organisation
Health Service Executive (HSE) Performance Reports
Type of Quality Indicator
Process
IOM Quality Dimension
Timeliness
Domain
Care of the Patient at the End of Life

Defining Attributes

Definition

To determine the percentage of patients accessing specialist palliative care inpatient beds within seven days. This is the calculation of the number of patients who were admitted to a specialist palliative care inpatient bed within seven days of receipt of referral expressed as a percentage of the total number of patients admitted in the reporting month.

Numerator

A count of the number of patients admitted to a specialist inpatient bed within seven days of assessment/request for transfer and expressed as a proportion of the overall number of patients admitted to specialist inpatient beds in the reporting period and multiply by 100

Denominator

The overall number of patients admitted to specialist inpatient beds in the reporting period

Exclusions
Use of Risk Adjustment
No
Risk Adjustments

None

Stratifications

Reporting is aggregated at the national, Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO), Local Health Office (LHO) and institution level.

Data Attributes

Type of Data Collection
Standardised clinical data
Data Collection Methods

Data collected to support these indicators are a combination of collecting primary data and data from national data collectors in the LHOS/CHOs. Data is sourced by the specialist palliative care units who forward to their Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO). The CHO submits the validated data to the Business Information Unit (BIU) Community Healthcare Team Data on a monthly basis via excel. The activity data reported is based on Performance Activity and Key Performance Indicators outlined in the National Service Plan 2022 and the HSE Operational Plans 2022. The Performance Report is overseen by the National Planning Oversight Group (NPOG), led by the Chief Operations Officer on behalf of the CEO. NPOG monitors performance against planned activity, as outlined in the National Service Plan, and highlights areas for improvement. A Management Data Report is also produced each month which provides more detailed data on the Metrics covered in the Performance Report.

Frequency of Data Collection
Monthly
Frequency of Data Collection in Days
30
Reporting Methods

Public reporting

Reporting Frequency
Quarterly
Reporting Frequency in Days
91
Indicator Has Recommended Targets
Yes

Source and Reference Attributes

Technical Specifications

Unable to locate full specifications. Some details are available here: www.hse.ie/eng/services/publications/kpis/2024-palliative-care-services-nsp-metadata.pdf

Link to Measurement Tools
Quality Indicator Confirmed to be Part of a Program Used to Monitor Quality and Safety of Care Among Older People at a Population-Level between 2012-2022
Yes
Assessed by the Australian Consortium for Aged Care Collaborators as Generally Containing Good Properties (Importance and Scientific Acceptability)
Yes
Australian Consortium for Aged Care Endorsed
No
Identified by PHARMA-Care Project
No
Upload Date
23 July 2025