Spending on potentially preventable hospitalisations by category and condition
Potentially preventable hospitalisations (PPH) are classified into three broad categories: acute conditions, vaccine preventable conditions and chronic conditions. Each of these categories have different reasons for which they are potentially preventable. While chronic conditions can be prevented by reducing risk factors and increasing care for conditions in the community, vaccine preventable conditions are infectious diseases that could be reduced either individually or in the community through increased vaccination rates. Trends in spending on PPH conditions can reflect changes in disease burden, management patterns for conditions, and interventions.
The following data visualisation shows expenditure for each category, the conditions within the category, and changes over time (Figure 3).
Key findings:
In 2023–24:
- most of the expenditure on PPH was attributed to chronic conditions, accounting for 45.2% of total PPH spending, followed by acute conditions at 37.5%.
- among chronic conditions, the highest expenditures were associated with diabetes complications ($962 million), congestive cardiac failure ($861 million), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) ($797 million).
- for acute conditions, the largest shares of expenditure were for urinary tract infections ($695 million; 23.9%), cellulitis ($554 million; 19.1%), and gangrene ($505 million; 17.4%).
- pneumonia and influenza were responsible for 63.3% of expenditure on vaccine-preventable conditions.
Between 2014–15 and 2023–24:
- per person spending on chronic conditions increased by 6% in real terms, while acute conditions increased by 16%.
- vaccine preventable condition spending was volatile, coinciding with flu seasons and the COVID-19 pandemic.
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive cardiac failure, and diabetes complications consistently accounted for the highest shares of PPH expenditure within the chronic category.
- diabetes complications per person expenditure showed an upward trend, increasing by 62% from $22.
- total spending on vaccine-preventable conditions increased by 88%.
