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Note: Northland has low or no data since April 2025. Tairāwhiti have lower inpatient volumes from March 2025. West Coast have lower inpatient volumes from July 2025.

7-day follow up dashboards

The 7-day follow-up is also known as acute inpatient post-discharge community care. These dashboards benchmark how many people are followed up in community settings within seven days of leaving an acute mental health inpatient service.

The percentage of people discharged from acute inpatient mental health services and seen in a community setting within seven days. All dashboards can be filtered by financial year, quarter (a three-month period) and demographic information.

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The setting for this indicator is community.

Why 7-day follow up matters

The days immediately after discharge from inpatient mental health services can be a particularly vulnerable time for some people. Research shows this period carries increased risk for readmission and self-harm.

Research shows a worrying number of people die by suicide within the first week or month after being discharged from inpatient mental health care. Between 2001 and 2015, 171 people (nearly seven percent of all tāngata whai ora who died by suicide within a year of service contact) had died within just one week of being discharged (Manatū Hauora Ministry of Health, 2019).

Read the 7-day follow up literature review.

Other Indicators

Technical Details

Data source

The data in this dashboard is sourced from PRIMHD.

Percentage of overnight discharges from the mental health and addiction service organisation’s inpatient unit(s) where a community service contact was recorded in the seven days immediately following that discharge.

This KPI calculates an overall follow up rate, which is the percentage of all acute inpatient discharges that were followed up, regardless of where that follow up occurred (Te Whatu Ora division, NGO or both)

Indictor rationale

A responsive community support system for persons who have experienced an acute psychiatric episode requiring hospitalisation is essential to maintain clinical and functional stability and to minimise the need for hospital readmission.

Service users leaving hospital after a psychiatric admission with a formal discharge plan, involving linkages with community services and supports, are less likely to need early readmission. Research indicates that service users have increased vulnerability immediately following discharge, including higher risk for suicide.

Denominator

Count of acute inpatient discharges

Numerator

Count of acute inpatient discharges where a follow up community contact (for the same person) exists where:

Community follow-up activity start date is between 1 and 7 days after acute inpatient discharge date

  • ActivityStartDate >= dateadd(1, day, InpatientDischargeDate)
  • ActivityStartDate < dateadd(8, day, InpatientDischargeDate)

Note: as of November 2020 terminology has changed from ReferralClosureDate to InpatientDischargeDate to eliminate confusion.

Technical notes

This denominator is shared with the other members of the acute inpatient KPI suite: 28-day readmission, length of stay, and pre-admission community contact.

General terminology

An acute inpatient discharge is any referral record where:

  1. ReferralEndDate is not null — ended referral
  2. TeamType is Inpatient — into an inpatient team
  3. ReferralEndCode is DR, DW, DT or DY — ended in a way where we expect follow-up
  4. ReferralTo is not PI, AE or NP — was not moving on to another hospital setting
  5. Exists at least one activity where — there was at least one acute inpatient bednight

a. ActivityTypeCode is T02 or T03 — acute inpatient bednight codes

b. ActivityUnitCount > 0 — for more than 0 days

An inpatient discharge date is calculated as the:

  1. Maximum ActivityEndDate for a referral record where: — end of last activity

a. ActivityType is T02, T03, T04 or T37 — inpatient activity only

A community contact is any activity record where:

  1. TeamType is not Inpatient — not inpatient follow up
  2. ActivityUnitType is contact — not a bednight, seclusion or leave
  3. ActivitySetting is not WR, OM or SM — includes service user participation
  4. ActivityType is not T08, T35 or T32 — includes service user participation

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