This section presents information on same day admitted patient mental health-related separations in Australian public hospitals. Data are sourced from the National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD); a collation of data on admitted patient care in Australian hospitals defined by the Admitted Patient Care National Minimum Data Set (APC NMDS). The information describes separations. It is possible for individuals to have multiple separations in any given reference period. Further information can be found in the data source.
There were a total of 3.5 million same day separations from public acute and public psychiatric hospitals in 2016–17. There were 64,692 same day admitted mental health-related separations in 2016–17, accounting for 1 in 50 (1.8%) of all same day public hospital separations. Of these, 22,182 (34.3%) separations involved specialised psychiatric care and 42,510 (65.7%) did not.
Due to the relatively small number of same day admitted patient mental health-related separations from public psychiatric hospitals, these separations have been combined with the public acute hospitals separations for reporting purposes in this section. Where possible, a distinction is made between separations with and without specialised psychiatric care.
Specialised same day admitted patient mental health care—public hospitals
Service provision
Specialised same day public admitted mental health care takes place within a designated psychiatric ward/unit, which is staffed by health professionals with specialist mental health qualifications or training and have as their principal function the treatment and care of patients affected by mental illness. It may also be referred to as specialised psychiatric care.
States and territories
In 2016–17, there were 22,182 same day public admitted mental health-related separations with specialised psychiatric care; equivalent to a national rate of 9.1 per 10,000 population.
The rate of same day public mental health-related separations with specialised psychiatric care in 2016–17 was highest for Queensland (23.0 per 10,000 population) and lowest for the Northern Territory (1.1) (Figure SD.1).
The principal source of funding for a separation is collected as part of the APC NMDS. However, it should be noted that a separation may be funded by more than one funding source and information on additional funding sources is not available. For public hospitals in 2016–17, more than three-quarters (79.0%) of same day public mental health-related separations with specialised psychiatric care were public patients (e.g. the health service budget or reciprocal health care agreement). This ranged from 99.3% for the South Australia to 49.0% for New South Wales.
The mode of separation is also collected and provides information on how each separation ended, and for some separations, the place to which the patient was discharged or transferred to. In 2016–17, the most common mode of separation for same day public mental health-related separations was discharge to ‘home’ (89.5%), which includes discharge to usual residence/own accommodation/welfare institution (including prisons, hostels and group homes providing primarily welfare services). For public hospitals, this ranged from 93.5% for Queensland to 51.2% for Western Australia.