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Results - Part A: General results

LabVISE reports 1991 to 2000

Between 1991 and 2000, LabVISE received 340,730 reports from between 13 and 26 laboratories. The numbers of reports and reporting laboratories are shown in Table 2. There has been a decline in both the number of reports and the number of contributing laboratories to LabVISE over the period 1991 to 2000 (Figure 1).

Table 2. Laboratory reports to LabVISE, 1991 to 2000, by laboratory

Jurisdiction	Laboratory name	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Australian Capital Territory	The Canberra Hospital	690	613	808	1,020	800	395	621	212	49	241
New South Wales	Institute of Clinical Pathology & Medical Research, Westmead	4,319	4,132	3,757	3,349	1,407	1,356	786	1,430	1,527	1,741
	Prince Henry/Prince of Wales Hospitals, Sydney	1,428	1,327	126	2,151	1,477	40	-	-	-	-
	New Children's Hospital, Westmead	892	845	779	764	677	499	975	1,101	1,253	924
	Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown	-	-	-	136	371	288	259	483	573	542
	South West Area Pathology Service, Liverpool	-	792	1,268	1,695	1,713	1,203	997	1,206	1,001	346
	New England Pathology	126	151	160	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Royal North Shore Hospital	-	-	-	18	296	159	291	-	-	-
Northern Territory	Alice Springs Hospital	-	-	-	-	-	113	-	-	-	-
Queensland	Lynch Laboratory, Rockhampton	1,085	1,540	803	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Queensland Medical Laboratory, West End	-	3,750	8,751	10,012	10,793	7,953	5,219	2,944	7,669	4,403
	Townsville General Hospital	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	98	207	110
	State Health Laboratory, Brisbane	4,619	5,581	6,935	6,011	3,630	4,224	2,249	-	-	-
	Toowoomba Pathology Laboratory	129	17	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Nambour Hospital	-	-	4	99	52	-	-	-	-	-
South Australia	Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, Adelaide	3,890	5,195	5,335	5,061	3,776	2,009	5,258	5,481	2,486	4,938
Tasmania	Northern Tasmanian Pathology Service, Launceston	-	76	222	161	184	95	110	156	105	128
	Royal Hobart Hospital, Hobart	231	273	306	472	596	293	109	234	24	-
	Hobart Pathology	19	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Victoria	Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne	-	-	222	569	798	772	765	421	728	259
	Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne	1,985	2,107	2,558	2,983	2,451	2,506	2,455	2,341	2,154	1,404
	Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Fairfield	4,791	4,991	5,061	4,024	4,102	2,367	1,623	1,463	1,954	1,936
	Microbiological Diagnostic Unit, University of Melbourne	247	172	166	152	126	111	123	3	-	-
	Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, Melbourne	-	-	-	59	36	-	9	-	-	-
	Unipath Laboratories	-	-	-	-	436	251	-	-	-	-
Western Australia	PathCentre Virology, Perth	5,132	5,890	6,219	6,521	6,603	4,813	3,746	4,030	5,571	5,187
	Princess Margaret Hospital, Perth	990	1,386	1,266	1,785	1,252	1,687	1,387	885	1,314	1,398
	Western Diagnostic Pathology	-	-	-	-	900	2,951	1,691	1,086	173	107
	Royal Perth Hospital	-	-	-	-	-	185	85	-	-	-
Total*		30,573	38,838	44,746	47,042	42,476	34,270	28,758	23,575	26,788	23,664

* Includes reports of organisms not analysed in LabVISE since 1997.

Top of pageFigure 1. Total annual number of reports and number of laboratories reporting to LabVISE, 1991 to 2000



The number of organisms reported to LabVISE was reduced in 1995. This report will focus on the current list of organisms, most of which have been reported for the full study period (1991-2000). The number of reports for these organisms by year of collection and State or Territory of patient's residence is shown in Table 3. The proportion of reports from each Australian State and Territory has varied over the study period (Figure 2).

Table 3. Laboratory reports to LabVISE, 1991 to 2000, by State or Territory

Year	ACT	NSW	NT	Qld	SA	Tas	Vic	WA	Australia
1991	436	4,498	0	3,969	2,596	145	4,568	3,076	19,288
1992	345	5,101	65	7,309	2,984	233	5,025	4,074	25,136
1993	621	4,475	57	10,851	2,833	380	5,473	3,529	28,219
1994	766	4,484	259	10,731	2,583	351	5,137	3,757	28,068
1995	596	3,958	749	7,318	1,897	436	4,857	3,777	23,588
1996	444	3,141	1,256	9,508	1,843	294	4,820	6,671	27,977
1997	592	3,437	1,030	7,032	5,249	229	4,939	6,011	28,519
1998	419	4,110	670	2,758	5,415	366	4,270	5,208	23,216
1999	283	4,386	1,092	6,337	2,505	158	4,822	6,894	26,477
2000	397	3,688	776	3,729	4,964	179	3,527	6,402	23,662
Total	4,899	41,278	5,954	69,542	32,869	2,771	47,438	49,399	254,150

Figure 2. Laboratory reports to LabVISE, 1991 to 2000, by State or Territory

Completeness of data

Table 4 shows the completeness of data in four key (but not mandatory) fields common to LabVISE for the whole period from 1991 to 2000. While sex and diagnosis data were reported consistently over the years for the majority of LabVISE reports, in recent years important data such as age has been incomplete in more than half of all records. The completeness of data varied by laboratory, pathogen, and year.

Table 4. Completeness of data in key fields in LabVISE, 1991 to 2000

Year	Sex* % complete	Age % complete	Postcode % complete	Diagnosis % complete
1991	97.6	77.0	2.9	100.0
1992	98.6	80.7	13.5	100.0
1993	98.9	83.1	51.6	99.9
1994	98.6	84.6	66.8	100.0
1995	98.9	91.5	74.8	99.9
1996	99.1	81.6	62.9	100.0
1997	99.1	80.9	60.9	99.9
1998	99.2	79.3	50.6	99.2
1999	99.3	54.7	74.9	94.2
2000	99.2	31.2	70.0	87.0

* Proportion of records identified as male or female, all the remainder were marked 'U' for unknown.

This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Volume 26, No 3, September 2002