PMHC-MDS Episode Tagging for new and existing Commissioned Service contracts

With the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year underway, the PHN is looking to continue working with Commissioned Service Providers to improve our data and reporting from the Primary Mental Healthcare Minimum Dataset (PMHC-MDS).

For providers with new and ongoing contracts, it is important that the data being uploaded into the PMHC-MDS can be linked to your contracts. It is essential for Service Provider Organisations with more than one contract to distinguish in the data uploaded to the PMHC-MDS which contract an episode of care belongs to.

As the data in the PMHC-MDS is used to measure progress towards a provider’s contractual targets, having a method to connect an episode of care to the correct contract is necessary to determine if the program is reaching its goals. The PHN recommends that providers continue to use the Episode tag field as the primary method of linking Episodes of care with a contract.

The Episode Tag field in the PMHC-MDS is a free-text field in the Episode that should be used by providers to include necessary information such as Department of Health Mandated tags (if required) and the Service Provider Contract Number (SERV Number) that the episode of care is funded by. It is important that data entered into the Episode Tags field is formatted as “SERV-” followed by the three digits of the relevant contract (e.g. SERV-999). This field should not be used for any other purposes including notetaking.

Currently 38% of all providers, and 46% of providers with more than one contract have successfully implemented episode tagging.

Including the relevant SERV number in the Episode Tags field will allow the PHN to effectively identify which contract an Episode of care, and each of the services within an episode, belongs to. This will ensure that the data that the Commissioning Coordinators use to monitor and evaluate program performance is accurate and representative of the services being delivered.

If you would like to know more about episode tagging and whether your contracts are distinguishable in the PMHC-MDS, please contact your Commissioning Coordinator.