Care Accounts
What does the research comprise?
Purpose
Description of the final expenditure on care. The care expenditure are broken down to providers of care, financing sectors and functions of care (clusters of activities).
Target population
Institutions and practices in the care area, that are engaged in care or care related activities (including administration). In comparison to the target population of the international System of Health Accounts the target population of the Care Accounts is larger: it also encompasses child care, welfare, and social care units.
Statistical unit
All units (kind of activity) within NACE 86, 87 and 88 (former NACE 85.1 and 85.3), plus all units that perform care activities outside those NACE classes (e.g. pharmacies).
Date research started
The research has figures from 1998 onwards.
Frequency
Annual.
Publication strategy
Provisional figures on t-1 in May of year t, presented in a press release and a Statline table " Care accounts; estimates of key figures".
Final figures are published in the Statline table "Care accounts; expenditure".
How is the research conducted?
Research type
In a process of data-integration on the macro-level data from different internal and external sources are confronted with each other and analysed. This results in files of care providers that give insight in expenditure flows, financing sources and functions of care. Price and volume data become also available.
Data gathering method
Data are collected from internal and external sources.
Respondents
- Internal sources: Statistics Netherlands business surveys of providers within NACE 86, 87 and 88 (former NACE 85), National Accounts, price and tariff information.
- External sources: financing data, budgetary information, tariff information, annual reports, financial reports.
Sample size
Not applicable.
Checking and correction methods
The statements of the sources are assessed on completeness, consistency and plausibility. For that data from earlier statements and from comparable sources are used.
Weighting
Not applicable.
What is the quality of the data?
Accuracy
Experiences shows that the difference between the provisional and final figures normally are of limited magnitude. The difference varies between a half per cent for the sum of the expenditures on care (highest aggregation level) and several per cents for the expenditures on different, small providers of care.
Sequential comparability
In the process of integraion the results of many internal and external sources are confronted with each other. This way of working furthers highly the reliability of the published results. For the period of 1998 till now the described area and the used definitions and concepts are univocal, so the sequential comparability is warranted.
Quality strategy
We check the completeness, internal and external consistency and plausibility of the gathered internal and external data. If necessary, corrections are applied.