The main measure of admitted patient care provided in Australian hospitala is the number of hospitalisations, or episodes of admitted patient care. Because hospitalisations can vary in length, another useful measure is patient days—the total number of days spent in hospital by patients, or days of patient care.
In 2017–18, there were 11.3 million hospitalisations—6.7 million in public hospitals and 4.5 million in private hospitals.
Same-day episodes accounted for 53% of hospitalisations in public hospitals (3.6 million) and 71% in private hospitals (3.2 million).
Between 2013–14 and 2017–18, hospitalisations:
- increased by an average of 3.8% each year, faster than the average population growth of 1.6% over the same period
- increased by an average of 4.2% each year in public hospitals and by 3.3% in private hospitals
- for same-day care, increased by an average of 4.7% each year, compared with 2.4% for overnight care.
Days of patient care (Patient days)
Between 2013–14 and 2017–18, the number of patient days:
- increased by an average of 2.1% each year, from 27.9 million to 30.2 million
- in private hospitals increased by 2.5%
- in private hospitals accounted for about one-third of all patient days over this period.
See the data visualisation below for more information on patient days, same-day and overnight hospitalisations.