Spending on potentially preventable hospitalisations by length of stay
Patients admitted for potentially preventable hospitalisations (PPH) may either be discharged on the same day or require an inpatient stay of one or more nights. In 2023–24 around 36.6% of PPH admissions were same-day stays, where patients were discharged without an overnight stay in hospital. In the same year, PPH accounted for approximately 3.14 million bed days across Australian hospitals. The average length of stay (LOS) of PPH requiring overnight care (4.0 days) is notably shorter than the national average LOS of 5.6 days for all hospitalisations (For more information, see Hospitals at a glance).
Much of the variation in total spending for each PPH condition is due to the number of admissions and length of stay. To better understand differences in costs for each PPH category, the average cost per separation and average cost per bed day can be utilised. The average cost per separation is estimated from the total number of PPH for a condition, and the total spending. Differences in the cost per separation mostly reflect the variation in overall length of stay. However, some difference in total spending is due to the resource intensity of treating each condition. The cost per bed day is calculated from the total spending and total number of days all patients were in hospital. Together, these metrics can help to better understand cost drivers for each PPH condition (Figure 4).
Key findings:
In 2023–24:
- among patients requiring overnight care, the average length of stay (LOS) was 4.0 days compared to an average of 5.6 days.
- vaccine preventable conditions had the highest LOS overall across all years (Figure 5).
- there was substantial variation in length of stay by condition: ranging from 1.2 days for dental conditions to 12.3 days for gangrene.
- the cost per separation was highest for pneumonia (not vaccine preventable, $37,249), rheumatic heart disease ($34,774), gangrene ($33,950) and nutritional deficiencies ($28,805).
- while angina was among the lowest cost per separation conditions, it had the fourth highest cost per bed day.
Between 2014–15 to 2023–24:
- the average LOS for total PPH remained relatively stable, consistently averaging around 4 days.
- LOS for gangrene decreased from 14.4 days to 12.3 days.
