What is the CDMS and what does it do?

Since 2002 almost all private hospitals with psychiatric beds in Australia have been routinely collecting and reporting a nationally agreed suite of clinical measures and related data for the purposes of monitoring, evaluating and improving the quality of and effectiveness of care. The CDMS was setup in 2001 to support those hospitals in that endeavour. It is operated by the Australian Medical Association under an Agreement for Services, with funding from participating private hospitals, private health insurance funds and the Australian Government. The work of the CDMS is closely supervised by the PMHA.

The CDMS works closely with private hospitals, health insurers and other payers (e.g., DVA), providing a statistical analysis and reporting service that delivers to them every quarter detailed standard reports on participating hospitals’ service provision and patient outcomes. Both hospitals and health insurers use this comprehensive source of clinically–oriented information to monitor, evaluate and improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of the services provided. The CDMS also produces an Annual Statistical Report. You can find copies of those reports here.

To support hospitals in that implementation of a national system for benchmarking the outcomes of service provision, the CDMS also: develops and maintains training resources for Hospitals; and provides Hospitals with a database application that enables them to record the required data, submit it to the CDMS in a standard personally de–identified format and facilitate their local use of the data in service evaluation and quality improvement.

In operating under the umbrella of the PMHA, consumers and carers, their treating psychiatrists, and both participating private hospitals and payers, are all provided with assurance that the highly sensitive information managed by the CDMS is protected by an appropriate governance structure.

Who are its’ staff?

The Director of the PMHA's CDMS, Mr Allen Morris-Yates, is responsible for all work undertaken by the CDMS. Allen is a research psychologist who has been working on the development of outcome–oriented information systems for mental health services for over twenty years. He has a first class honours degree from the University of NSW and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Sydney.

Where is it located?

The CDMS is located in Adelaide. The principal computing equipment used in the processing of data submitted by participating hospitals and the preparation of reports is located within a secure data centre in the Adelaide CBD. All other work is undertaken at the Director’s office in Eden Hills, South Australia.