Hospitals
Potentially preventable hospitalisations
Potentially preventable hospitalisations (PPHs) are conditions where the hospitalisation could have potentially been prevented through the provision of appropriate individualised preventative health interventions or early disease management. These interventions would normally be delivered in primary care and community-based care settings (including by general practitioners, medical specialists, dentists, nurses and allied health professionals).
In 2024–25:
- 6.3% (799,000) of all hospitalisations were classified as potentially preventable hospitalisations
- just over 3 in 4 PPHs (77%) were treated in public hospitals
- the most common acute PPH was Urinary tract infections, including pyelonephritis (91,700 hospitalisations, or 24.8% of acute PPHs), followed by Dental conditions (89,000, 24.2%).
- the most common chronic PPHs were Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (71,000 hospitalisations) and Iron deficiency anaemia (68,900 hospitalisations), which made up 40% of chronic PPHs, combined
- 90% of PPHs were for Acute conditions (46%) or Chronic conditions (44%) with the remainder being Vaccine preventable conditions. A hospitalisation can be classified as multiple PPH types based on relevant diagnoses recorded.
Variation in PPH across population groups
In 2024–25:
- for First Nations people, the rate of PPHs per 1,000 population was 72.2, almost 3 times the rate of other Australians (24.8)
- the overall rate of PPHs was highest for residents of Remote and Very remote areas (44.0 and 69.2 per 1,000 population, respectively) and lowest for residents of Major cities (24.2 per 1,000 population)
- the rate of PPHs decreased with increasing levels of socioeconomic advantage, ranging from 34.3 per 1,000 for residents of the lowest quintile socioeconomic areas to 19.5 per 1,000 for residents of the highest.
Changes over time
From 2020–21 to 2024–25, rates of PPHs increased from 24.4 per 1,000 population to 26.2 per 1,000 population, an annual average increase of 1.7%. This average annual increase in the rate of PPHs was greatest for Vaccine-preventable conditions (30.3%). The large average annual change for Vaccine-preventable conditions can be largely attributed to the historically low rate in 2020–21 and 2021–22, when measures implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19 also resulted in a decrease in hospitalisations due to influenza.
Data on potentially preventable hospitalisations are available in Admitted patient care 2024–25: Safety and quality of the health systems. These data are sourced from the National Hospital Morbidity database.
Data tables are available in the Data downloads section.
Definitions of the terms used in this section are available in the Glossary.
More information, appendices and caveat information are available in the About the data section.
Potentially preventable hospitalisations
Potentially preventable hospitalisations (PPHs) are conditions where hospitalisation could have potentially been prevented through the use of appropriate and individualised preventative health interventions and early disease management.
The rate of PPHs is a National Healthcare Agreement (NHA) performance indicator, relating to the outcome area ‘Australians receive appropriate high quality and affordable primary and community health services’. Selected potentially preventable hospitalisations is also an indicator of the health system’s effectiveness under the Australian Health Performance Framework.
Hospitalisation rates for PPHs are viewed as indicators of the quality or effectiveness of non-hospital care. A high rate of PPHs may indicate an increased prevalence of the conditions in the community, poorer functioning of the non-hospital aspects of the health care system or an appropriate use of the hospital system in response to greater need.
There are 3 broad categories of PPHs:
- Vaccine-preventable—diseases that can be prevented by proper vaccination. These conditions themselves are considered to be preventable, rather than the hospitalisations
- Acute—conditions that may not be preventable, but theoretically would not result in hospitalisation if adequate and timely care (usually non-hospital) was received
- Chronic—conditions that may be preventable through behaviour modification and lifestyle change, but can also be managed effectively through timely care (usually non-hospital) to prevent deterioration and hospitalisation.