Injury in Australia

An intensive care unit (ICU) is a designated ward of a hospital which is specially staffed and equipped to provide observation, care and treatment to patients with actual or potential life-threatening illnesses, injuries or complications, from which recovery is possible (METEOR 2018). In the ICU, patients may need continuous ventilatory support (CVS), or ‘life support’, when a patient breathes via an artificial airway with the aid of a machine.

In 2022–23:

• 11,207 injury cases were admitted to ICU (about 2%, an ASR of 40 per 100,000 people)
• 6,538 injury cases received CVS (about 1%, an ASR of 24.5 per 100,000 people)
• 3,391 injury cases died in hospital (about 1%, an ASR of 9.6 per 100,000 people)

In 2022–23, 11,207 injury cases were admitted to ICU which equates to nearly 31 new cases per day. More males were admitted to ICU than females (ASRs of about 50 and 30 per 100,000 persons, respectively) (Table 4). While more females are hospitalised with falls overall (Figure 1) the age-standardised rate of males admitted to ICU for falls is higher than that of females (13.1 and 7.5 per 100,000 respectively), indicating that severity of falls injury hospitalisations may be higher among males. 

For transport-related injuries, males were 3 times more likely to be admitted to ICU compared to women (13 and 4.3 per 100,000, respectively). More females were admitted to the ICU for intentional self-harm compared to males (12 and 9 per 100,000, respectively).

Notes:

1. Rows with under 20 persons are not displayed.

2. Person totals include hospitalisations where the sex of the patient was other, inadequately described or not stated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database

Males were almost twice as likely to require CVS compared to females (ASRs of about 32 and 17 respectively). Injuries due to intentional self-harm (ASR 8 per 100,000), transport (ASR 5 per 100,000) and falls (ASR 4 per 100,000) were most likely to result in continuous ventilatory support. In 2022–23, there were 6,538 injury cases requiring CVS (Table 5) which equates to nearly 18 new cases each day.

Notes:

1. Rows with under 20 persons are not displayed.

2. Person totals include hospitalisations where the sex of the patient was other, inadequately described or not stated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database

Injuries caused by falls were the leading cause of deaths in hospital (ASR 7 per 100,000) (Table 6), followed by transport and intentional self-harm. Males were more likely to die in the hospital than females (ASRs of about 12 and 7 per 100,000, respectively).  

Note: Rows with under 20 persons are not displayed.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database

References

METEOR (2018), Intensive Care Unit - Metadata 327234, AIHW, accessed 06 May 2024.