• Samantha L Dawson, Tim Baker, and Scott Salzman.
• Centre for Rural Emergency Medicine, Deakin University, Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia.
• Aust J Rural Health. 2015 Apr 1; 23 (2): 107-11.

ObjectiveThere is little evidence that useful electronic data could be collected at Australian small rural emergency services. If in future their funding model changed to the Activity-Based Funding model, then they would need to collect and submit more data. We determine whether it is possible to collect episode-level data at six small rural emergency services and quantify the accuracy of eight fields.DesignA prospective cross-sectional study.SettingSouth-West Victoria, Australia.ParticipantsSix small rural emergency services.InterventionWe collected and audited episode-level emergency data from participating services between 1 February 2011 and 31 January 2012. A random sample of these data were audited monthly. Research assistants located at each service supported data entry and audited data accuracy for four hours per week.Main Outcome MeasuresRates for data completeness, accuracy and total accuracy were calculated using audit data.ResultsEpisode-level data were collected for 20 224 presentations across six facilities. The audit dataset consisted of 8.5% (1504/17 627) of presentations from five facilities. For all fields audited, the accuracy of entered data was high (>93%).Triage category was deemed appropriate for 95.9% (95% confidence interval (CI): 94.9-96.9%) of the patient records reviewed. Some procedures were missing (28.7%, 95%CI: 27.2-30.3%). No significant improvement in data accuracy over 12 months was observed.ConclusionAll six services collected useful episode-level data for 12-months with four hours per week of assistance. Data entry accuracy was high for all fields audited, and data entry completeness was low for procedures.© 2015 National Rural Health Alliance Inc.

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