Website of the Department of Health

The Critical Care Minimum Data Set (CCMDS)

This web page groups together all the approved CCMDS documentation and support material. These should be the principal reference source for users and will be updated with additional papers or amendments as required.

The 34 fields of the CCMDS provide key administrative and clinical data approved for collection by NHS Trusts admitting adult patients who require level 2 or 3 critical care.   Collection of such standardised data should facilitate analysis of critical care activity and capacity planning both within and between NHS Trusts.

There are 14 mandatory fields (the HRG subset) within the full 34-field data set.  The collection of the Critical Care HRG subset has been approved by the Review of Central Returns Steering Committee - ROCR. The ROCR reference number is: ROCR/OR/0163. These support critical care HRGs and Payment by Results and must be collected from April 2006.   The Augmented Care Period (ACP) data set will be replaced by the CCMDS from this point in time.  Critical care HRGs are expected to be introduced from April 2007 with national tariffs informed by the data collected from April 2006. The tariffs will be regularly reviewed but it is essential that the mandatory 14 field collection is completed as comprehensively and accurately as possible by all Trusts as this data will inform the appropriate level of tariff and hence resourcing of critical care services in the future.

The clinical professions have driven the development of the CCMDS, taking expert advice from information specialists and using data derived from HRG research work.  Members of the Critical Care Information Advisory Group (CCIAG) sponsored by the Department of Health and the NHS Modernisation Agency are responsible for this work, which began with widespread consultation in April 2002.  Professional support has included the Intensive Care Society (ICS), the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC), the Royal College of Nurses (RCN), the British Association of Critical Care Nurses, BACCN and the independent health sector.

Dr John Morris   
Chair, CCIAG   
Consultant Anaesthetist
East Kent NHS Hospitals Trust

Mr Keith Young
Head of Policy, Critical Care,
Department of Health