DOKLI - Austrian Treatment Demand Indicator System

The implementation of a unified reporting system on clients of drug services covering the treatment demand indicator has been a national as well as European priority for some time. The basis for the Austrian system was elaborated in a working group set up by the health ministry and involving representatives of the regional drug resp. addiction co-ordinations as well as the drug services as well as the ÖBIG in charge of preparation and follow up of the meetings. The implementation was carried out by the ÖBIG from November 2004 to December 2005 in a project commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health and Women. The activities involved many different tasks required in order to ensure a smooth and sustainable implementation of TDI in Austria, amongst others: finalisation of all details regarding core items and data collection; motivational work in order to ensure wide participation of drug services; definition and implementation of quality assurance measures (provision of training, of a manual and instructions and of a helpdesk; definition of benchmarks and quality criteria etc.); programming of a specific software for data collection, aggregation and transmission; purchase and distribution of the hardware required for the services; elaboration of a plan regarding the logistics of data transmission from the services to the central data collection unit; definition of rules for data protection and safety (incl. a “code of conduct” regarding data protection); development of a plan for data analysis and reporting.

The routine implementation of DOKLI - as the Austrian system was called - started in January 2006. From then on all drug clients of the about 180 participating drug services are recorded in a standardised way. Once a year the data collected at local level will be transmitted to the ÖBIG which is in charge of data processing and analysis as well as provision of a annual report on the results. The routine implementation will be accompanied by an advisory board involving the health ministry, regional drug resp. addiction co-ordinations and the participating drug services. The advisory board is in charge of discussion and consultation regarding all steps for further development of TDI in Austria, drafts of the annual report, provision of data to third parties etc. More detailed information is available on the project website: http://tdi.oebig.at

Commissioned by: Federal Ministry for Health, Family and Youth (BMGFJ)
Contact: Alexander Eggerth, busch(at)oebig.at
Completed: Implementation December 2005; since 2006 continuous project