Hospital performance: accreditation

Hospital accreditation is regarded as a performance indicator relevant to the effectiveness of hospital services. Hospitals can be accredited through organisations such as the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, Business Excellence Australia, and the Quality Improvement Council, or through certification with the International Organization for Standardization's 9000 quality family.

A total of 681 public hospitals with 56,545 beds (98% of public hospital beds) were known to be accredited at 30 June 2011 (Figure 1). These hospitals provided 99% of public hospital separations (completed episodes of admitted patient care) and 98% of patient days (days spent in hospital as an admitted patient).

The latest private hospital data, available from the ABS, are for 2009–10. A total of 543 private hospitals and 27,045 private hospital beds (93% of hospitals, covering 97% of beds) were accredited that year.

The proportions of accredited hospitals and beds in accredited hospitals have not changed much over recent years, reflecting continuing requirements of funding organisations for hospitals to be accredited. Between 2006–07 and 2010–11, 90% or more of hospital beds were in accredited hospitals.

Figure 1: Proportion of hospital beds that were in accredited public and private hospitals, 2006–07 to 2010–11

Note: Accreditation statistics were not available for private hospitals for 2007–08 and 2010–11.

Further information

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