Hospital inpatients and day cases (SMR01)

The Scottish Morbidity Records (SMR) contain healthcare data for individual patients. There are four main SMR series for the general types of healthcare received during an episode and/or the nature or status of the patient. Those are outpatient attendance (SMR00), general/acute inpatient and day case (SMR01), maternity inpatient and day case (SMR02) and mental health inpatient and day case (SMR04).

The largest of the SMR series, the SMR01 database, contains episode level data for all general/acute inpatient or day cases in Scottish NHS hospitals or Scottish NHS beds in non-NHS-institutions. An SMR01 record is generated for an inpatient or day case for the following reasons: when they are admitted to an NHS hospital from a location external to the NHS; when they are admitted to a contracted NHS bed in a non-NHS-institution; when they change speciality; when they transfer from another NHS hospital; when they change consultant but not specialty. Further, an SMR01 record is generated when an inpatient moves into and/or out of one of the valid significant facilities and when they return to hospital after been on pass for more than 5 days.