Summary

This report summarises information provided by Australia to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) Health at a glance 2015 report for a common set of indicators about the quality of health care delivered across OECD member countries.

International comparisons of this kind are complex due to the diverse nature of health-care systems, and differences in data sources and quality across countries, but such comparisons nevertheless provide a tool to inform priorities and policies for health services and to monitor progress in achieving health objectives.

The graphic on the next page represents Australia's performance compared with the OECD average for each indicator.

Indicators for which Australia performed favourably are listed toward the top of the graphic, and indicators where Australia performed unfavourably are listed toward the bottom. Australia performed about the same as the OECD average for indicators in the middle of the graphic.

The OECD's Health at a glance 2015 report provides information about the quality of the data provided by countries and note that, in particular, postoperative deep vein thrombosis, postoperative pulmonary embolism, and the obstetric trauma indicators may be affected by data quality limitations, and should be interpreted with caution.

The graphic represents Australia’s performance compared to the OECD average across a scale. Those indicators where the results are better than the OECD average are placed at the top, and those that are worse than the OECD average, at the bottom.