Nationwide General Hospital Morbidity Study as a source of data about Polish population health

Abstract

The objective of this article is description of the important source of data on hospitalised morbidity collected in Poland within the frameworks of public statistics, and also underlying the significance of the quality of data collected at the hospital level for the purpose of the practical application of them. The Nationwide General Hospital Morbidity Study has been conducted by the Department of Population Health Monitoring and Analysis of the NIPH-NIH for more than 40 years within the frameworks of the Programme of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics. Since the year 2000, it has had a complete character, collecting individual data for all cases of hospitalisation in Poland within the scope compliant with the MZ/Szp-11 form, among others, sex, age, place of residence of a patient, data on hospital, information about the course of treatment (length of stay in hospital, principal diagnosis and comorbidity, applied medical procedures, the mode of admission and discharge). The collected data are anonymous. In the recent years, annually, more than 8 million of the cases of hospitalisation have been documented. Almost all obliged hospitals (96%) participate in the study. Some weak point is the completeness of submitted data, in particular, regarding information about the external causes of injuries and poisonings (in the year 2017, 27% of the required data were missing). Interestingly, a high level of missing data is generated by a comparatively small number of hospitals. Significant differences are observed in the quality of data depending on the voivodship of hospital location. The collected data render it possible to, among others, determine the frequency of hospitalisations due to particular causes taking under consideration the localisation of a hospital, and also the sex, age and the place of residence of patients, the analysis of the duration of hospital stay or in-hospital fatality. The aggregated results are reported to international databases (WHO, OECD, Eurostat), and support the administrative authorities of various levels. They are also a basis for numerous published scientific papers. The most important results of routine analyses are presented of the web page of the Study (http://www.statystyka1.medstat.waw.pl/).

Characteristics and Clinical Outcomes of 116,539 Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19—Poland, March–December 2020

“…This retrospective analysis was based on data from hospital discharge reports on COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Poland between March and December 2020. Hospital discharge reports are collected by the National Institute of Public Health as a part of the population-based hospital morbidity study [ 19 ]. According to Polish law, all hospitals (both public and private, except the psychiatric facilities) are obligated to report hospitalization data (discharge reports) according to one specific template.…”

“…Both confirmed cases of COVID-19, as well as probable cases of COVID-19 were analyzed because the COVID-19 case definition for epidemiological supervisions of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection [20] consider the laboratory criteria (confirmed COVID-19 case), as well as clinical criteria (symptoms typical for COVID-19) and radiological criteria (CT-images of the lungs characteristic for COVID-19). The similar approach was applied in previous papers on COVID 19-related risk of in hospital death, where the data source were medical registers [21,22]. In Poland, COVID-19 death is defined in line with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control guidelines, which ensure the comparability of data between the EU countries [23].…”

Epidemiological Analysis of Diabetes-Related Hospitalization in Poland before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2014–2020

“…This epidemiological analysis is based on data from the Polish National Hospital Register carried out by the National Institute of Public Health–National Institute of Hygiene (NIPH—NIH) within the population-based hospital morbidity study [ 31 ]. Discharge reports are submitted to NIPH—NIH by the public and private hospitals (except the psychiatric units) from all administrative regions in Poland.…”

The Prevalence of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and Outcomes in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19—A Study Based on Data from the Polish National Hospital Register

“…The source of data for this study was hospital discharge reports on COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Poland between March and December 2020 (during the first and the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland). Data were collected by the National Institute of Public Health National Institute of Hygiene-National Research Institute (NIPH NIH-NRI) as a part of the Nationwide General Hospital Morbidity Study-a branch of the Programme of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics [20,21]. According to Polish law (ordinance of the Council of Ministers, Journal of Laws, item 2062) [21], all hospitals (both public and private, except the psychiatric facilities) are obligated to report hospitalization data (discharge reports) [20].…”

“…Data were collected by the National Institute of Public Health National Institute of Hygiene-National Research Institute (NIPH NIH-NRI) as a part of the Nationwide General Hospital Morbidity Study-a branch of the Programme of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics [20,21]. According to Polish law (ordinance of the Council of Ministers, Journal of Laws, item 2062) [21], all hospitals (both public and private, except the psychiatric facilities) are obligated to report hospitalization data (discharge reports) [20]. Anonymous data contained in the register are made available to scientists as part of public statistics on reasonable request (e.g., for research purposes).…”