The reason a patient receives admitted patient care can be described in a number of ways. These include the urgency of admission, the type of care required and the principal diagnosis.
Urgency of admission
Admission to hospital is generally categorised into two urgency categories—Emergency (required within 24 hours), Elective (required at some stage beyond 24 hours). Urgency is not assigned for some admissions (for example, obstetric care, and planned care, such as dialysis).
In 2017–18:
- 92% of emergency admissions were in public hospitals, and made up 42% of admissions to public hospitals
- 59% of elective admissions were in private hospitals, and made up 81% of admissions to private hospitals
- 14% of private health insurance-funded hospitalisations were emergency admissions, with two thirds of these admitted to public hospitals.
Between 2013–14 and 2017–18:
- emergency admissions in public hospitals increased by an average of 4.4% each year, compared with 5.3% each year in private hospitals
- elective admissions increased by an average of 2.7% each year in both public and private hospitals.