Overnight admitted patient care occurs when the patient is admitted and separated on different days (stays at least one night). This section reports on overnight acute care (referred to as overnight care), where the care was not for rehabilitation or other non-acute care (which made up 5.3% of overnight separations).
In 2010–11, 40% of separations (3.5 million) were for overnight acute care. This included 47% of separations (2.5 million) from public hospitals and 30% of separations (1.1 million) from private hospitals.
Between 2006–07 and 2010–11, the number of overnight acute separations increased, on average, by 2.6% per year for public hospitals, and by 2.2% per year for private hospitals.
Who used these services?
Indigenous Australians were hospitalised overnight at about twice the rate for other Australians.
Persons usually resident in Very remote areas had 264 overnight acute separations per 1,000 population, compared with 152 per 1,000 nationwide.
Separation rates varied by socioeconomic status, from 130 per 1,000 population for the highest SES group to 169 per 1,000 for the lowest SES group.
How urgent was the care?
About 52% of overnight acute separations were for emergency care, 37% were for elective care and about 11% were other planned care (not assigned) (Figure 38).
Why did people receive this care?
The most common principal diagnoses for overnight acute separations were:
- childbirth (about 286,000 separations)
- pain in the throat and chest (almost 75,000 separations)
- sleep disorders (63,000 separations)
- pneumonia (61,000 separations).
What care was provided?
In public hospitals, about 62% of overnight acute separations were for medical care (including specialist mental health).
In private hospitals, about 53% of overnight acute separations were for surgical care.
How long did patients stay?
The average length of stay for overnight acute separations was 5.2 days for public hospitals and 4.7 days for private hospitals. This was similar to 2009–10 (5.3 and 4.7 days, respectively).
The average length of stay for medical care was greater in private hospitals, and was notably higher in public hospitals than in private hospitals for both surgical and other care (Figure 39).
Who paid for the care?
In public hospitals, almost 83% of overnight acute separations were public patients.
In private hospitals, private health insurance funded about 83% of overnight acute separations.
International comparisons
The number of overnight separations per 1,000 population in Australia for 2010–11 was in the middle of the range that other OECD countries reported for recent years (Figure 40) (OECD 2010).
Although OECD collate this information on as comparable a basis as possible, the comparability of international separation rates is likely to be affected by differences in definitions of hospitals, collection periods and in admission practices.