Overview
Originally developed in 1963, the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) captures administrative, clinical and demographic information on hospital discharges (including deaths, sign-outs and transfers). Some provinces and territories also use the DAD to capture day surgery.
Data extracted from the DAD is used to populate other AVÐÇÇò databases, including
- The Hospital Morbidity Database (HMDB)
- The Hospital Mental Health and Substance Use (HMHSU) Data Asset
Find out more about acute inpatient care, including reports and analyses based on DAD data.
Data source
Data is received directly from acute care facilities or from their respective health/regional authority or ministry/department of health. Facilities in all provinces and territories except Quebec are required to report.
Data from Quebec is submitted to AVÐÇÇò directly by the ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec. This data is appended to the DAD to create the Hospital Morbidity Database (HMDB).
Data coverage
The DAD contains demographic, administrative and clinical data on all separations (with the exception of stillbirths and cadaveric donors) from acute inpatient facilities in all provinces and territories except Quebec.
See Data Source for information on Quebec.
It also includes includes demographic, administrative and clinical data on all patient separations from day surgery facilities in some provinces and territories.
Quarterly submission targets
To improve data timeliness, facilities are encouraged to meet quarterly submission targets of 60 days after the end of each quarter:
- Fiscal year 2023–2024
- Q1: target for April-to-June-2023 discharges is August 30, 2023
- Q2: target for July-to-September-2023 discharges is November 30, 2023
- Q3: target for October-to-December-2023 discharges is February 29, 2024
- Q4 (same as jurisdictional year-end deadline)
- Target for January-2024-to-March-2024 discharges is May 31, 2024 (Ontario only)
- Target for January-2024-to-March-2024 discharges is June 30, 2024 (all other jurisdictions)
Data availability
Data is available for the following fiscal years:
- Next release: 2023–2024
- Provisional data: 2023–2024
- Q1 (April to June) 2023–2024, available September 15, 2023
- Q2 (July to September) 2023–2024, available December 15, 2023
- Q3 (October to December) 2023–2024, available March 15, 2024
- Q4 (January to March) 2023–2024, available July 2024
- Most recent closed year: 2022–2023
- Historical series: 1994–1995 to 2021–2022
For data requests, please complete and submit the online data inquiry form.
Data elements
The DAD contains demographic, administrative and clinical data for
- Hospital inpatient discharges; and
- Day surgery interventions.
Below is the link to the data elements document:
More detailed information on the DAD data elements can be found in the .
Classification
As early as 2001–2002, some provinces and territories began using ICD-10-CA and CCI to code diagnoses and interventions in hospital separations reported to the DAD. Since 2004–2005, all DAD records have been reported in ICD-10-CA and CCI; prior to that, ICD-9, CCP and ICD-9-CM were used.
The most recent classifications and related products can be found on the Classifications Resource Page.
To request classifications and related products from 2006 to 2012, send an email to help@cihi.ca.
Data quality
AVÐÇÇò ensures that the quality of the information in our data holdings is suited to its intended uses and that data users are provided with accurate information about data quality. Read more about our Data and Information Quality Program.
Below are links to data quality documents:
Data quality documentation
- Current-Year Information, 2023–2024 (PDF)
- 2022–2023 (PDF)
- 2021–2022 (PDF)
- 2020–2021 (PDF)
- 2019–2020&²Ô²ú²õ±è;(±Ê¶Ù¹ó)
Open-year data quality test specifications
- 2023–2024 (PDF) (updated February 2024)
- 2022–2023 (PDF)
- 2021–2022 (PDF)
- 2020–2021 (PDF)
- 2019–2020&²Ô²ú²õ±è;(±Ê¶Ù¹ó)
- 2018–2019 (PDF)
Additional data quality resources
- How to use AVÐÇÇò’s provisional health data
- Provincial/Territorial Provider Number Specifications (PDF)
Privacy impact assessment
Privacy impact assessments (PIAs) evaluate and address the privacy impacts of programs and systems.
Go to the Privacy and security page to view the PIA, which contains further information about the purposes, data elements and data sources for this data holding.
Contact us
For further information, please email