Admitted patient access

The accessibility of admitted patient care services can vary depending on the demographics of the patient. This section presents information on the variation of access to these services by demographic information for 2019–20, including information on the patients’:

• age and sex
• Indigenous status
• remoteness of area of usual residence
• socioeconomic status of area of usual residence.

In the data visualisation below, you can explore information on hospitalisations for 2019–20, by age group and sex, and age group and hospital sector.

Highlights

Age group and sex

In 2019–20:

• 5.8 million hospitalisations were for females (52%), and 5.3 million hospitalisations were for males (48%).
• women accounted for 64% of hospitalisations for people aged 20–39—the age range that includes most hospitalisations for childbirth
• females also accounted for more patient days than males (15.6 million and 14.5 million patient days, respectively)
• people aged 65 and over (who make up about 16% of the population) accounted for 43% of hospitalisations and 49% of patient days
• people aged 85 and over (who make up about 2% of the population) accounted for about 7% of hospitalisations and 12% of patient days.

Between 2015–16 and 2019–20, hospitalisations for people aged 65–74 and 75–84 increased—

• for people aged 65–74, hospitalisations rose by 11%, an average increase of 2.7% each year
• for people aged 75–84, hospitalisations rose by 12%, an average increase of 3.0% each year.

However, between 2014–15 and 2018–19, hospitalisations for people aged 65–74 rose by 21.0% (or 4.9% on average each year) and, for people aged 74–84, hospitalisations rose by 18% (or 4.3% on average each year). This suggests that the latest release of data is a smaller increase in the number of hospitalisations due to the impact of COVID-19.

Hospitalisation rates

In 2019–20:

• there were 439 separations per 1,000 population (age-specific rate)
• women had higher hospitalisation rates per 1,000 population in the age range of 15–44, which is likely in part due to those being prime reproductive years
• men were more likely than women to have a separation at the age of 55–64 (631 and 567 per 1,000, respectively) and onwards. But as they got older, the difference in the separation rate for men and women increased even further.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

In 2019–20:

• 581,200 hospitalisations (5.2%) were reported for people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin, who represent about 3.3% of the Australian population (ABS, 2018).
• 88% of hospitalisations for Indigenous Australians were from public hospitals (470,500), compared with 60% of hospitalisations for Non-Indigenous Australians.

Hospitalisation rates

In 2019–20:

• there were 995 hospitalisations per 1,000 population for Indigenous Australians— about 2.4 times the separation rate for other Australians 
• about 65% of this difference is due to the markedly higher rate of hospitalisations for dialysis for Indigenous Australians compared with other Australians (512 and 45 per 1,000 population, respectively), which also contributed to higher rates of same-day hospitalisations for Indigenous Australians compared with for other Australians
• for Indigenous Australians, there were 271 overnight acute hospitalisations per 1,000 population, which was almost twice the rate for other Australians (145 per 1,000).

Remoteness of area of usual residence

In 2019–20:

• the numbers of hospitalisations per 1,000 population were highest for people living in Very remote and Remote areas (780 and 540 per 1,000 population, respectively)
• the standardised separation rate ratio (SRR) for people living in Very remote areas was 1.9, indicating that the separation rate was almost two times higher than the national separation rate
• for public hospitals, hospitalisation rates ranged from 649 per 1,000 for people living in Very remote areas to 222 per 1,000 for patients living in Major cities
• for private hospitals, hospitalisation rates ranged from 88 per 1,000 for people living in Remote areas to 169 per 1,000 for people living in Major cities, in part, this may reflect the distribution of private hospitals across remoteness areas.

Socioeconomic status of area of usual residence

In 2019–20:

• hospitalisation rates in public hospitals were highest for patients living in areas classified as being the lowest (most disadvantaged) SES group (303 per 1,000 population)
• for people of the lowest SES group, the separation rate ratio was 1.2 for public hospital separations—indicating that the hospitalisation rate was 20% higher than the national hospitalisation rate (1.0)
• patients living in areas classified as being the highest SES group (least disadvantaged) had the highest hospitalisation rates in private hospitals  (221 per 1,000)—which had a separation rate ratio of 1.4.

Length of stay is the number of days between admission to hospital, and separation. The Average Length of Stay (ALOS) is calculated as the total number of patient days reported for the hospital (or group of hospitals), divided by the number of hospitalisations. 

OECD indicator: Length of stay

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) presents comparative information on the ALOS for overnight hospitalisations as an indicator of efficiency. The comparability of international ALOS may be affected by differences in definitions of hospitals, collection periods and admission practices.

Performance indicator: Average length of stay for selected AR-DRGs

The ALOS for selected AR-DRGs is an indicator of Efficiency and sustainability under the Australian Health Performance Framework (AHPF).

Explore the data

In the data visualisation below, you can view the ALOS by selected medical procedures, by state and territory, and by type of hospital (peer group).

Highlights

In 2019–20:

• the ALOS for overnight hospitalisations in Australia was 5.5 days, which was lower than the OECD average length of stay of 7.2 days
• there were notable differences (more than 1 day) in the ALOS between public and private hospitals for 7 of the 20 selected AR-DRGs. For example, the ALOS for Chronic obstructive airways disease, minor complexity was 2.7 days for public hospitals and 6.0 days for private hospitals.

Between 2015–16 and 2019–20:

• the overall ALOS for public and private hospitals combined decreased by an average of 1.0% per year from 2.8 days to 2.7 days
• for overnight hospitalisations, the ALOS in all hospitals combined was relatively stable between 2015–16 and 2019–20, decreasing by an average of 0.3% each year over this period
• for Public acute hospitals, the ALOS excluding same day hospitalisations decreased from 5.4 to 5.3 days over the same period.

Significant changes in ALOS over time may be related to changes in admission practices and improvements in the coverage of reporting.

The numbers of public and private hospitals in Australia can vary over time, reflecting the opening or closing of hospitals, the reclassification of hospitals as non‑hospital facilities (or vice-versa) and the amalgamation of existing hospitals.

The number of hospitals reported can be affected by jurisdictional variations in administrative and/or reporting arrangements and is not necessarily a measure of the number of physical hospital buildings or campuses.

This section reports on the number of public hospitals in Australia, reported by jurisdictions in the National Public Hospital Establishments Database 2019–20 (NPHED).

Highlights

In 2019–20:

• there were 695 public hospitals in Australia
• 26% of public hospitals (182) were located in Major cities, but the largest number of hospitals were located in Outer regional areas (210, or 30%)
• 67% of the average available beds were located in Major cities, and a further 19% in Inner regional areas
• while 16% of hospitals were located in either Remote or Very remote areas, representing 3% of available beds, the average available beds per 1,000 population was higher in remote areas—4.06 beds per 1,000 population compared with 2.28 beds in Major cities and 2.86 beds in regional areas.

Local hospital networks for public hospitals

Local hospital networks (LHNs) directly manage single or small groups of public hospital services and their budgets, and are directly responsible for hospital performance. They are defined as those entities recognised as LHNs by the relevant state or territory health authority.

LHNs vary greatly in location, size and in the types of hospitals that they include. LHNs may include both public and private hospitals. The information presented below relates to public hospitals only.

In 2019–20:

• there were 138 LHNs, including 85 in Victoria, and 1 each in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory
• many LHNs in Victoria consist of a single public hospital. Other networks might consist of a Principal referral or Public acute group A hospital and a range of smaller and/or more specialised hospitals.

Availability of hospital beds

Information about the availability of hospital beds in relation to the population provides some information about the accessibility of hospital services. However, the available data does not take account of the extent to which hospitals provide services for patients who usually reside in other areas of the state or territory, or in other jurisdictions. The patterns of bed availability across regions may also reflect the availability of other health-care services and patterns of disease and injury.

Available beds

Average available beds is a census figure that reflects the number of beds available each day, on average, over the collection period.

On average, in 2019–20:

• there were 62,700 available beds in public hospitals, with 2,200 (3.5%) of these in public psychiatric hospitals
• 87% of beds in Public hospitals (other than psychiatric) were available for overnight stay patients
• the proportion of beds available for same-day patients in Public hospitals (other than psychiatric) ranged from 7% in the Australian Capital Territory to 26% in the Northern Territory
• available beds per 1,000 population in Public hospitals (other than psychiatric) ranged from 2.2 per 1,000 in Western Australia, to 4.0 per 1,000 in the Northern Territory.

On average, between 2018–19 and 2019–20:

• available bed numbers fell by 0.7% from 63,100 to 62,700 average available beds
• available beds per 1,000 population fell by 2.4% per 1,000 population.

Remotess area

In 2019–20:

• 67% of public hospital beds were located in Major cities (41,900 beds) and 19% were located in Inner regional areas (12,000 beds)
• the number of public hospital beds per 1,000 population ranged from 2.3 beds per 1,000 population in Major cities to 4.7 beds per 1,000 population in Remote areas.

The most recent data available for private hospitals and private free-standing day hospital facilities is for 2016–17, and is drawn from the Private Health Establishments Collection (PHEC) undertaken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

In 2016–17, the ABS reports there were 657 private hospitals in Australia.

Highlights

Between 2012–13 and 2016–17:

• private hospital bed numbers rose by an average of 3.6% per year (from 29,800 to 34,300)
• the number of beds per 1,000 population increased from 1.31 to 1.42 per 1,000—an average of 2.0% per year
• the number of beds in Other private hospitals (those that do not specialise in same-day care) increased by an average of 3.6% per year, and the number of beds per 1,000 population in Other private hospitals rose from around 1.18 to 1.28 beds per 1,000
• the number of beds in Private free-standing day hospital facilities increased by 3.0% each year
• about 34,300 beds were reported for private hospitals, with 3,310 (9.6%) of these in Private free-standing day hospital facilities.

A specialised service unit is a facility or unit dedicated to the treatment or care of patients with particular conditions or characteristics, such as an intensive care unit.

In 2019–20, the most common specialised service units offered by public hospitals were:

• Domiciliary care units (provided by 338 public hospitals)
• Nursing home care units (provided by 285 public hospitals)
• Obstetric/maternity services units (provided by 216 public hospitals).

There were 84 Intensive care units (level III and above) and 32 Neonatal intensive care units (level III and above).

Explore the data

The data visualisation below provides a list of selected services provided by individual hospitals, including specialised care units, in 2019–20.

The information about services provided by a particular hospital is intended as a general guide only. There is the potential for some omissions or errors in this information and readers should contact a hospital directly for the latest advice on the services available.

A list of the types of specialised units is available in the ‘More information about the data’ section below.