Bureau of Health Information

What Bureau of Health Information does

The Bureau of Health Information (BHI) is a board-governed statutory health corporation of the New South Wales Government, established in September 2009 under the Health Services Act 1997 on the recommendation of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Acute Care Services in NSW Public Hospitals. Headquartered at 1 Reserve Road, St Leonards NSW with 11–50 employees, BHI operates as one of NSW Health's pillar organisations to independently report on the performance of the NSW public healthcare system, with statutory editorial independence from government. Its mandate is to provide transparent, fair and rigorous information that informs improvements in patient care, policy and accountability.

BHI's product portfolio is built around healthcare performance reporting rather than conventional software. Core publications include Healthcare Quarterly (tracking activity and performance for NSW emergency departments, elective surgery, admitted patient and ambulance services), Healthcare in Focus (annual report to the NSW Minister for Health and Parliament comparing performance against national and international benchmarks), the NSW Patient Survey Program (the largest statewide patient survey program in Australia, covering emergency, admitted, maternity, ambulance, outpatient cancer clinics, virtual care and rural services), Mortality and Readmission Reports with risk-standardised ratios for individual hospitals, and the Insights Series on themes such as Aboriginal patient experience. Underlying technology comprises advanced reporting, communications and data visualisation platforms, an interactive Data Portal and Hospital Performance Profiles tool, and downloadable spreadsheet datasets. Data is managed by a dedicated Director of Data Governance, Management and Analyses.

Commercially, BHI is funded by the NSW Government as a statutory corporation through annual Performance Agreements with NSW Ministry of Health, subject to independent financial audits, and is not a customer-paid business. All products are provided free of charge to the public via the bhi.nsw.gov.au website. Its primary stakeholder is the NSW public healthcare system (NSW Ministry of Health and Local Health Districts), with secondary audiences of clinicians, researchers, policymakers and the community. Distribution is predominantly self-serve (website, Data Portal, downloadable data), supplemented by direct stakeholder briefings, conference participation and media releases on X (@bhiNSW) and LinkedIn.

Name

Bureau of Health Information

Legal name

Bureau of Health Information

Website

https://bhi.nsw.gov.au

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Bureau of Health Information is a NSW Government statutory health corporation that independently reports on the performance of the NSW public healthcare system through quarterly performance reports, an annual system-wide report, the largest statewide patient survey program in Australia, mortality and readmission analyses, and an interactive Data Portal used by policymakers, clinicians and Local Health Districts.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Healthcare Performance Reporting

SIC

Services-Health Services (8000)

akta.pro primary industry

Public Health Reporting, Dashboards & KPI Performance Management (HLAJANAO)

akta.pro secondary industries

Health Statistics & Reporting (National/State/Local Indicators) (HLAJAJAC), Quality Measurement, Reporting & Benchmarking (HEDIS/Stars/CQM) (HLACAHAC), Monitoring, Evaluation, Performance Management & Quality Improvement (HLAJAMAJ)

Keywords

• Healthcare performance reporting
• Patient experience surveys
• Health system analytics
• Health data visualization
• Government health reporting

Headquarters

HQ city

Saint Leonards

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Government Funding: BHI is a NSW Government statutory corporation funded through the Health Services Act 1997. As one of NSW Health's pillar organisations, it operates under annual Performance Agreements with NSW Ministry of Health and is subject to independent annual financial audits.

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

BHI independently reports on the performance of the NSW public healthcare system through quarterly performance reports (Healthcare Quarterly), an annual comprehensive performance report (Healthcare in Focus), mortality and readmission reports, and the Insights Series. It manages the largest statewide patient survey program in Australia and provides public access to healthcare performance data through an interactive Data Portal, Hospital Performance Profiles, and downloadable data tools. All products are delivered at no cost to support transparency, accountability, and improvements in patient care.

Product overview

The Bureau of Health Information (BHI) is a board-governed statutory health corporation that operates as one of NSW Health's pillar organisations. BHI's product portfolio consists primarily of performance reporting products rather than a traditional software platform. The core offerings include Healthcare Quarterly (quarterly activity and performance reports for emergency departments, elective surgery, admitted patients, and ambulance services) and Healthcare in Focus (annual comprehensive performance report to the NSW Minister and Parliament). The NSW Patient Survey Program represents the largest statewide patient survey program in Australia. These are complemented by specialised reports including Mortality Reports, Readmission Reports, and The Insights Series for in-depth analyses. Access to BHI's data is provided through the Data Portal (interactive exploration tool), Hospital Performance Profiles (local hospital performance summaries), and Downloadable Data (spreadsheet access). Measurement Matters provides technical methodology documentation. BHI fulfils its statutory functions with editorial independence, maintaining a website providing information and analysis tools for data analysis.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Healthcare Quarterly

Quantifiable outcome

• Supports performance management, program evaluation, and service improvement across NSW healthcare system.
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• NSW Government / NSW Ministry of HealthcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2009BHI was established by the NSW Government under the Health Services Act 1997. BHI operates under annual Performance Agreements with the NSW Ministry of Health, ensuring work aligns with health system priorities including NSW Health's Future Health Strategic Framework and patient experience guidelines.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): US federal agency that produces national healthcare performance reports, patient safety data, and quality measurement tools. Same independent-reporting and benchmarking role as BHI, but operating at national scale in the much larger US healthcare system.
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW): National Australian health statistics and reporting agency that publishes nationwide health performance data, mortality, and hospitalization statistics. Highly comparable in scope and methodology, but operates at the national rather than state level and covers a broader health/welfare remit beyond hospital performance.
• NHS England - Analytics Function: The NHS England statistics and analytics function publishes extensive healthcare performance data, patient surveys, and operational metrics for the English NHS. Comparable to BHI in product set but operates at the national scale of a much larger health system.

Emerging players

• Sax Institute: Australian not-for-profit focused on using research evidence to inform health policy and service delivery. Overlaps with BHI's evidence-to-policy function and shares NSW-focused health systems research; BHI Board member Professor Sally Redman was Sax Institute's inaugural CEO from 2002-2022.

Others

• Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC): NSW Health pillar organisation that works in parallel with BHI on patient safety, clinical quality improvement, and incident review across NSW public hospitals. BHI's Chair previously chaired the CEC, evidencing close operational overlap within the same NSW Health pillar structure.
• Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI): NSW Health pillar organisation that designs and implements innovation in clinical care, and a documented BHI customer (hosted BHI presentations on Aboriginal patient experience and patient-reported measures). Sits within the same NSW pillar structure and uses BHI data to inform its innovation programs.

Regional players

• Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI): Canadian independent not-for-profit that provides comparable health system performance reporting, including patient experience data, wait times, hospital performance benchmarks, and a public data portal. Same product-mix and methodology as BHI but serves a national/provincial Canadian audience.

Direct peers

• Picker Institute Europe: International charity that runs patient experience survey programs and develops measurement tools used by health systems to capture patient-reported experience. BHI's leadership (Hilary Rowell) previously served in board-level advisory roles to Picker Institute, evidencing deep methodological overlap.
• Health Quality & Safety Commission (New Zealand): New Zealand's statutory body for measuring and reporting on health quality, safety, and patient experience across the public health system. Closely mirrors BHI's mandate — independent reporting, patient surveys, mortality and readmission measurement, and a public data portal.
• Victorian Agency for Health Information (VAHI): VAHI performs the directly comparable role in Victoria — an independent statutory body reporting on the Victorian public healthcare system's performance via quarterly reports, patient experience surveys, and a data portal. Same statutory reporting model, same target audience, same product mix.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/bhiNSW
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/bureau-of-health-information

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Bureau of Health Information