Professional practice and innovation: identifying and flagging children and young people under state guardianship on the Patient Administration System (PAS).

In December 2006 a data matching trial was undertaken in partnership between Women's and Children's Hospital (WCH) and Families South Australia (SA), the state child welfare agency, to identify children and young people under guardianship of the Minister for Families and Communities with those already registered on the WCH Patient Administration System (PAS). By identifying this group of children, a priority health response could be initiated to improve their health and wellbeing. The data supplied by Families SA identified 1,683 children currently under guardianship. Data were compared against the WCH PAS, which identified that 72% (n = 1,212) of these matched with patients who were already registered on the PAS. There were 28% (n = 471) that did not match; these individuals were registered on the PAS so that if they did present to the hospital the appropriate measures could be taken to ensure they received the necessary treatment and follow-up.