Drug related hospitalisations

Information on hospitalisations is taken from the National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD). This database includes almost all public hospitals that provided data for the NHMD in 2016–17, with the exception being an early parenting centre in the Australian Capital Territory. Similarly, the majority of private hospitals also provided data for the NHMD, the exceptions being the private free-standing day hospital facilities in the Australian Capital Territory.

Further information can be found in Admitted patient care 2016–17: Australian hospital statistics.

Number of drug-related separations

Drugs described in this section include legal, accessible drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, drugs that are available by prescription or over the counter, such as analgesics and antidepressants, and drugs that are generally not obtained through legal means, such as heroin and ecstasy. Therefore, a proportion of the separations reported here may result from harm arising from the therapeutic use of drugs, and this inclusion may mean the burden on the hospital system appears larger than expected.

In 2016–17:

• there were about 11.0 million separations (episodes of admitted patient care) in Australia’s public and private hospitals
• about 137,000 hospital separations with a drug-related principal diagnosis were reported in 2016–17 (Table 1), representing 1.2% of all hospital separations, a similar proportion to previous years
• sedatives and hypnotics continued to account for the highest proportion of hospital separations with a drug-related principal diagnosis (59% of all such separations), with alcohol making up 87% of separations for sedatives and hypnotics
• on its own, alcohol accounted for 51% of all drug-related hospital separations
• of all separations with a drug-related principal diagnosis, 13% were for analgesics, with opioids (heroin, opium, morphine and methadone) accounting for half of this group (6.3% of all drug-related separations)
• stimulants and hallucinogens, which includes cannabis, cocaine and methamphetamines, accounted for 16% of all separations where the principal diagnosis was drug-related
• overnight separations continued to be more common for drug-related treatment than same-day separations, accounting for 60% of all drug-related separations.

Note: Separations with a care type of ‘Newborn’ (without qualified days), and records for ‘Hospital boarders’ and ‘Posthumous organ procurement’ have been excluded.

Source: AIHW analysis of the NHMD 2016–17.

Trends in drug-related separations

The total number of drug-related hospital separations has increased from 111,910 in 2012–13 to 137,203 in 2016–17, an increase of 23%. At the same time, total hospital separations have increased, with drug-related hospital separations consistently making up about 1% of all hospital separations across this 5-year period.

Alcohol was the drug-related principal diagnosis with the highest number of hospital separations across the 5-year period from 2012–13 to 2016–17, with the number of separations increasing from 62,359 to 70,011 in that time. Over the same period, there was a notable increase regarding methamphetamine drug-related principal diagnosis, rising from 1.6% of all drug-related principal diagnoses in 2012–13 to 6.3% of all drug-related principal diagnoses in 2016–17 (Table 2).

Notes

1. Crude rate is based on the Australian estimated resident population as at 31 December of the reference year.
2. Changes to the Australian Coding Standard for Rehabilitation (ACS 2104), introduced from 1 July 2015 in the 9th edition of ICD-10-AM mean that Z50.- Care involving the use of rehabilitation procedures (which was previously required to be coded as the principal diagnosis) is now an ‘Unacceptable principal diagnosis’. The change to the ACS means that the ‘reason’ for rehabilitation will now be identified using the principal diagnosis (rather than as the first additional diagnosis). This change has had minimal impact on separations related to a drug-related principal diagnosis.
3. Separations with a care type of ‘Newborn’ (without qualified days), and records for ‘Hospital boarders’ and ‘Posthumous organ procurement’ have been excluded

Source: AIHW analysis of the National Hospital Morbidity Database 2016–17.

Hospital separations data

The hospital separation data included in this report were extracted from the AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database using a selection of codes from the International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems, 10th revision, Australian modification 9th edition (ICD-10-AM) (see Table 3).

Note: Data for 2016–17 were reported to the NHMD using the ICD-10-AM (9^th edition).

References

ACCD (Australian Consortium for Classification Development) 2014. The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) – 9th edn. – tabular list of diseases, and Alphabetic index of diseases. Adelaide: Independent Hospital Pricing Authority.

ACCD 2015. The Australian Classification of Health Interventions (ACHI) – 9th edn. – Tabular list of interventions, and Alphabetic index of interventions. Adelaide: Independent Hospital Pricing Authority.