Medical Warning System collection
The Medical Warning System (MWS) is an alert service linked to National Health Index (NHI) numbers.
On this page
Scope
The MWS is a value-added service closely aligned with the NHI. It is designed to warn health care providers of the presence of any known risk factors that may be important when making clinical decisions about patient care. This includes drug allergies or medical conditions.
The MWS includes the following features:
- medical warnings incorporating adverse medical reactions and significant medical conditions
- event summaries incorporating identification of the facility where the patient’s medical record is located.
Using the collection
The MWS was initially part of the National Master Patient Index, implemented in 1977.
Specifically aimed at health care providers.
Classification codes are not fully reported and are not validated. Generally, the description of the drug and the reaction is of most interest to users.
For further details refer to the MWS data dictionary.
Medical Warnings System (MWS) data dictionary — Data dictionaries
The responsibility for maintaining the content of the MWS rests primarily with its users, the healthcare providers.
The codes for Adverse Medical Reactions and Significant Medical Conditions are taken from the International Classification of Diseases.
For:
- Adverse Medical Reactions, external cause codes from the ICD-9-CM-A range E930–E949 are used
- Significant Medical Conditions, diagnosis codes from the ICD-9-CM-A range 001–999 are used.
Ongoing, as required.
Access to the MWS:
- is restricted to healthcare providers approved by Sector Operations
- features is dependent upon a valid NHI number, also known as HCU identifier, for the healthcare user being provided.
Under the Health Information Privacy Code 1994, healthcare users must be advised:
- their information may be entered on the MWS
- they have the right to refuse permission for this to be entered.
The Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (CARM) receives information from GPs and hospitals. Eventually this will be provided directly from the MWS. CARM aims to determine which adverse reactions are life-threatening to patients.
None.