Preliminary insights into data collection processes in New South Wales intensive care units

To investigate the resources and infrastructure available for collecting intensive care unit data in New South Wales for submission to the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Adult Patient Database (APD).

Descriptive cross-sectional survey, part of an annual survey of ICU resources.

All 42 adult ICUs in public hospitals in NSW, March-April 2006.

Nurse unit managers of ICUs.

There was variability in who was responsible for data collection and data entry, and who oversaw the data collection process. The time dedicated to these functions also varied greatly and depended on available resources, which were often reported as insufficient. At least 55% of ICUs experienced delays in entering data into a database. Although 65% reported conducting quality checks on data, 30% could not report the frequency of checks; another 30% did not use checks to improve data quality.

It appears that NSW ICUs are generally not adequately resourced or organised for collecting data, which could significantly affect the quality of data submitted to the ANZICS APD. Further investigation of data quality is warranted, and a follow-up survey of ICU directors is planned. Until the issue of data quality is adequately addressed, outcomes measurement based on these data should be treated with caution.