Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Statistics on healthcare non-expenditure provide information on healthcare human resources, healthcare facilities, and healthcare utilisation.
The people active in the healthcare sector (doctors, dentists, nurses, etc.) and their status (graduates, practising, migration of doctors and nurses, etc.);
The available healthcare technical resources and facilities (hospital beds, beds in residential care facilities, medical technology, etc.);
The health activities or patient contacts undertaken (hospital discharges, surgical procedures, ambulatory care data, etc.).
Annual national and regional data are provided in absolute numbers or as a rate of a relevant population.
Data are based mainly on administrative records (see section 18.1 ‘Source data’ for more information).
3.2. Classification system
For the collection of data on healthcare non- expenditure, the classifications used in the System of Health Accounts (SHA) and its related set of International Classification for the Health Accounts are applied.
For Health Employment, the Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications apply.
Definitions of mandatory variables are laid down in Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/2294.
Where possible, the statistics are separated by sex (male/female), age group and NUTS2 region.
National deviations: see Annex at the bottom of the page.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Public health.
Ambulatory care: consultations provided by doctors and dentists conducting a non publicly funded medical practice are excluded.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The healthcare non-expenditure statistics describe the public health sector from a non-monetary perspective. The statistics explain the number or rate of different healthcare resources, facilities and utilisations. A wide range of indicators are collected from a multitude of sources and therefore, details pertaining to individual variables are given in the Annex.
Definitions of mandatory variables are laid down in Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/2294.
National changes of statistical concepts and national definitions deviating from Regulation (EU) 2022/2294: see Annex at the bottom of the page.
3.5. Statistical unit
Registered health professionals or health care facility categories.
3.6. Statistical population
All health care staff.
All available beds or equipment in hospitals or in nursing and residential care facilities.
All discharges or procedures performed in all hospitals.
3.7. Reference area
Complete national territory
3.8. Coverage - Time
Time coverage depends on data availability, e.g
physicians at NUTS 2 level - since 2019 (by voivodship - since 1999)
Hospital beds by NUTS 2 - since 2018, (by voivodship - since 2003)
Hospital resources - since 2009
non-resident discharges - since 2018
consultation - since 1950, immunisation - since 2009, screening - since 2004, hospital aggregates - since 1980,
Inpatient care - since 1980, discharges - since 2005, exams - since 2014, procedures - since 2005, physicians - since 1960, Hospitals - since 1985, hospital beds - since 2003, medical technology - since 1998,0, physicians by age and gender - since 2019
3.9. Base period
Not applicable
Absolute numbers at end of reference period/average number during reference period.
Rate of phenomenon per reference population (e.g. per 100 000 inhabitants).
Calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
No identifiable individual data, i.e. statistical data which can be linked and identified with a specific natural person, as well as information and statistical data characterising the economic and financial performance of entities of the national economy conducting economic activity, may be published or made available if a given aggregation consists of less than three entities or the share of one entity in a given aggregation is greater than three quarters of the whole thing;
In the case of national economy entities in accordance with Article 38, paragraph 3 of the Act, the information and statistical data referred to in paragraph 2 may be published if a person authorized to represent the entity has given written consent to publish specific data characterizing the economic and financial performance of the entity.
8.1. Release calendar
There is a national release calendar for the statistical outputs from the process being reported. This calendar is publicly accessible.
units of official statistics shall disseminate the output statistical information in a professional manner (in line with professional and ethical standards), ensuring equal treatment of all users, in accordance with applicable legislation;
public statistics shall ensure equal, equivalent and simultaneous access to the output statistical information, and in particular to basic values and indicators which the President of Statistics Poland is obliged to publish under separate legal regulations. The output statistical information shall not be made available to any user before the date of dissemination. Dates for their dissemination must be announced in advance;
the output statistical information is disseminated with unambiguous methodological explanations in order to avoid misinterpretation and misuse;
Aggregated and tabular data are provided to commercial institutions, e.g. insurance companies.
In 2014, data on hospital discharges was used for Policy Paper, justifying Poland's efforts with funds for the needs related to the strategy regarding the reduction of health inequalities in health and access to health services
Nationwide General Hospital Morbidity Study as a source of data about Polish population health Anna Poznańska 1, Paweł Goryński 1, Wojciech Seroka 1, Jakub Stokwiszewski 1, Paweł Radomski 1, Bogdan Wojtyniak 1 PMID: 31134776
DOI: 10.32394/pe.73.08
Data from the study are available on internet portals in the form of tables and maps and raw data is available for advanced users for scientific analyzes
Data on hospital discharges are delivered in the form specified by Eurostat OECD and WHO to these organizations.
Methodological aspects are described in the work cited above.
Data Users can get detailed information about the data record structure, sending data from hospitals to NIH and about logical checks of transmitted data from the study from webpage.
Metadata for specific items are presented in Methodological reports:
Every year, NIH sends a report on hospital discharges to the Ministry of Health and in this report discussed problems related to the quality and completeness of data in the reporting year.
The quality policy is based on continuous improvement of statistical processes and products in order to meet and satisfy the users’ needs, reduce respondents’ burden and to decrease the costs of statistical production. Quality in official statistics is based on the European Statistical System definition of quality and defined by the following six criteria:
relevance
accuracy
timeliness and punctuality
accessibility and clarity
comparability
coherence
In addition, when assessing the quality of statistics costs and burden on respondents and confidentiality, transparency and data security issues are considered. The Act of 29 June 1995 on Official Statistics is recognized by Statistics Poland as Polish Commitment on Confidence in Statistics.
Activities focused on quality improvements are in line with the following international and European standards:
The European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP) is the cornerstone of the quality framework and sets the standards for developing, producing and disseminating European statistics. It is the result of work on development of a quality strategy in the European Statistical System and the instrument to enhance independence, integrity and accountability of statistical authorities. Its current version was revised and endorsed by the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) on 16th November 2017.
In 2019 the European Statistical System Committee approved additional document supporting the implementation of indicators included in the Code of Practice i.e. the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (ESS QAF) which contains methods, tools and good practices suggested to be used.
The quality policy of Polish Official Statistics and the standard tools for measuring, assessing and monitoring the quality of statistical surveys are presented in the study Vademecum of Quality in official statistics. Vademecum is recommended to be applied by producers of European statistics including Other National Authorities (ONAs) in order to provide high quality data.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The user needs are considered in the scope of the work on the Program of statistical surveys of official statistics, developed annually.
Government administration, national and local media, local government administration – province, local government administration – district, local government administration – commune, city, individual recipients, Eurostat and other foreign statistical institutions, Sejm, Senate, schools (teachers and students), scientific/research institutions, universities (academic teachers and students), international organizations, associations, organizations, foundations.
The user satisfaction is considered in the scope of the work on the Program of statistical surveys of official statistics, developed annually.
Each year, the Draft Programme of Statistical Research of Public Statistics for the following year is presented for inter-departmental arrangements, opinions and public consultations, within which representatives of government and local government bodies, social organisations and trade unions may submit comments and proposals regarding the scope of the research conducted and the resulting information.
Hospital aggregates – data sources: The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Interior and Administration for general and psychiatric hospitals, and Statistics Poland for health resort hospitals, sanatoriums and inpatient rehabilitation facilities.
Hospital discharges, Procedures – data source: National Institute of Public Health-National Institute of Hygiene (NIPH-NIH); General Hospital Morbidity Study (GHMS).
The most serious source of errors is matching the coding of the cause of hospitalization to the best valuation of the benefit reimbursed by the payer (insurance found).
The high non-response influences data results in case there is no possibility to compensate missing data (e.g statistics of doctors or dentists).
13.2. Sampling error
Sampling error exists in household surveys such as European Health Interview Surveys. Other surveys are based on reports and cover all population.
In theory, according to legal regulations, 20 days after discharge from hospital, in practice there are significant differences between hospitals and regions.
Other statistics: The timeliness organisation of statistics is the deadlines for submitting data and publishing results are specified annually in the program of statistical surveys.
14.2. Punctuality
In accordance with applicable legal regulations, the data set is closed at the end of the reporting year and the data is published in the following year.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
There are no differences between regions in the legal regulations (definitions) of data collection, but there are differences in the completeness of data.
Not applicable. Data are fully comparable over time.
Methodological changes influence the comparability over time. Since 2023: change of data sources (the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Interior and Administration) for calculation of bed-days, ALOS, and occupancy rates in curative care.
Medical personnel - significant methodological change in 2019, estimations based on administrative data.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
There are some problems with the comparability of data from different sources, which result from the way data is collected and the purpose of these data.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Statistical outputs within the data set are consistent.
Increasing the automation of the process of transferring data from the hospital to the public statistics system will reduce the burden on hospital employees
Currently, the degree of computerization is different.
Statistics on healthcare non-expenditure provide information on healthcare human resources, healthcare facilities, and healthcare utilisation.
The people active in the healthcare sector (doctors, dentists, nurses, etc.) and their status (graduates, practising, migration of doctors and nurses, etc.);
The available healthcare technical resources and facilities (hospital beds, beds in residential care facilities, medical technology, etc.);
The health activities or patient contacts undertaken (hospital discharges, surgical procedures, ambulatory care data, etc.).
Annual national and regional data are provided in absolute numbers or as a rate of a relevant population.
Data are based mainly on administrative records (see section 18.1 ‘Source data’ for more information).
30 June 2026
The healthcare non-expenditure statistics describe the public health sector from a non-monetary perspective. The statistics explain the number or rate of different healthcare resources, facilities and utilisations. A wide range of indicators are collected from a multitude of sources and therefore, details pertaining to individual variables are given in the Annex.
Definitions of mandatory variables are laid down in Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/2294.
Hospital aggregates – data sources: The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Interior and Administration for general and psychiatric hospitals, and Statistics Poland for health resort hospitals, sanatoriums and inpatient rehabilitation facilities.
Hospital discharges, Procedures – data source: National Institute of Public Health-National Institute of Hygiene (NIPH-NIH); General Hospital Morbidity Study (GHMS).
The most serious source of errors is matching the coding of the cause of hospitalization to the best valuation of the benefit reimbursed by the payer (insurance found).
The high non-response influences data results in case there is no possibility to compensate missing data (e.g statistics of doctors or dentists).
Absolute numbers at end of reference period/average number during reference period.
Rate of phenomenon per reference population (e.g. per 100 000 inhabitants).
Non-response is the the most common reason for imputation.
Source data for the different variables are given in the Annex at the bottom of the page.
Depending on availability of data the source of data are: statistical surveys based on reports, questionnaire surveys, administrative data.
In theory, according to legal regulations, 20 days after discharge from hospital, in practice there are significant differences between hospitals and regions.
Other statistics: The timeliness organisation of statistics is the deadlines for submitting data and publishing results are specified annually in the program of statistical surveys.
There are no differences between regions in the legal regulations (definitions) of data collection, but there are differences in the completeness of data.
Not applicable. Data are fully comparable over time.
Methodological changes influence the comparability over time. Since 2023: change of data sources (the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Interior and Administration) for calculation of bed-days, ALOS, and occupancy rates in curative care.
Medical personnel - significant methodological change in 2019, estimations based on administrative data.
