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Table 2 Data sources

From: Variation in resource allocation in urgent and emergency Care Systems in Ireland

Service

Details of data collected

Pre-hospital Expenditure

General Practice: Activity, Funding and Staffing

• Claims through the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) categorised as ‘Emergency’ and ‘Out of Hours’ were taken to represent urgent and emergency cases [15]. Expenditure related to these claims is also reported by the PCRS.

• GP and practice nursing workforce figures were reported in a recent study [16].

• Data on workforce employed by GP co-operatives were gathered through surveys sent to the General Manager of each practice (response rate = 90%).

• Additional data on healthcare service utilisation taken from the Quarterly National Household Survey [17] were used to estimate GP and practice nurse staffing and non-medical card activity and expenditure

Ambulance Services: Activity, Funding and Staffing

• Data on ambulance staffing was provided by the National Ambulance Service [18, 19], Dublin Fire Brigade, the Health Service Executive and Health Information and Quality Authority [20].

In-Hospital Expenditure

Public ED and LIU: Activity, Funding and Staffing

• Public ED and LIU expenditure data were provided by the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) Healthcare Pricing Office (HPO).

• Overall Hospital expenditure data were extracted from the HSE Management Data report [21].

• Surveys designed to collect additional data on ED and LIU consultant, non-consultant hospital doctor and nursing staffing levels were posted to all hospitals (Response rate = 33%). Secondary sources were used to supplement the survey data [22, 23].

• Presentations at each public ED and LIU were extracted from the HSE Data Management report [21].

Private ED and LIU: Activity, Funding and Staffing

• Data on consultant staffing and activity in private EDs were estimated by the HSE, based on contractual agreements with consultants around the split between public and private work.

• Data on the number of presentations at private LIUs were used to estimate resources used in private clinics [22].

County of Residence: Utilisation

• The patient’s county of residence in relation to each ED and LIU presentation was extracted from the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry Scheme, held by the HPO.

Population Estimates

County and Regional

• All population data were taken from the 2011 Census [13].