Admitted care classifications

All Victorian hospitals use the following classifications to assign clinical codes to admitted episodes of care in hospitals:

• International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification
• Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups
• Australian Classification of Health Interventions.

These codes are submitted to the Department of Health and form part of the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED). 

The use of these classifications is supported by the Australian Coding Standards (ACS). These classifications and the ACS, in use across Australia, are maintained by the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority https://www.ihpa.gov.au/

In limited circumstances Victoria supplements the ACS with Victorian additions to the ACS.

International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification

The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) classification is a modification of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) classification, The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). Australia is a designated collaborating centre for the WHO and under the terms of that arrangement can make modifications to ICD-10 to better meet Australian clinical practice. The ICD-10-AM is used to report diagnosis codes to the VAED.

Australian Classification of Health Interventions

The Australian Classification of Health Interventions (ACHI) was developed for use in Australian hospitals and was first used in Victoria in 1998. It was originally based on the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and maintains alignment with the MBS. The ACHI is used to report procedure codes to the VAED.

Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups

Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (AR-DRG) is an admitted patient classification system that provides a clinically meaningful way of relating the number and type of patients treated in a hospital (casemix) to the resources required by the hospital. Each AR-DRG represents a class of patients with similar clinical conditions requiring similar hospital services. The classification categorises acute admitted patient episodes of care into groups with similar level of complexity and that consume similar amounts of resources, using information in the hospital morbidity record such as the diagnoses, procedures and demographic characteristics of the patient.

Victorian ICD Coding Committee

The Victorian Agency for Health Information (VAHI) convenes the Victorian ICD Coding Committee (VICC) to respond to ICD coding and DRG queries from Victorian health information managers and clinical coders. Queries resolved by the committee are published in the ICD Coding Committee queries database. Clinical coding and classifications education is also published at times to support the work of coders.

Calendar of ICD coding and DRG grouping systems

Information regarding the release dates and implementation dates for the admitted heath classifications (ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS and DRG) used in Victoria from 1986 can be found in the Calendar of ICD coding and DRG grouping systems used in Victoria 2020-21