Technical details

Specification development and technical details

The initial development process in preparing this paper identified a number of proposals to be considered in developing the general practice-focused PPH indicator specification. These included that:

  • a long-term view of preventability be taken to account for the role of general practitioner teams in supporting patients by addressing a range of risk factors. Interventions delivered up to 30 years prior were considered in scope for long-term chronic conditions
  • conditions and procedures be added to or removed from the specification due to new vaccines, new treatments for conditions, or revised definitions of conditions that may be considered preventable due to general practice care
  • vaccine-preventable conditions included in the specification be based on the principal diagnosis only
  • assessment of chronic conditions and complications be adopted (for example, separation of infectious respiratory conditions with and without underlying chronic respiratory conditions)
  • acute and mental health care be the only care types included, on the basis that other care types require tertiary management (such as palliative care or rehabilitation)
  • contiguous hospitalisations (that is, hospitalisations for new care types within a given hospital stay) be excluded on the basis that the original hospitalisation will be counted
  • hospitalisations for people aged 75 and over be excluded due to the frequent presence of co-morbidities among older age groups (though supplementary analysis of ages 75 to 84 has been provided with caveats)
  • same day hospitalisations and hospital-in-the-home care be excluded due to variations in hospitalisation practices and policies.