The potentially preventable hospitalisations (PPH) indicator is a proxy measure of primary care effectiveness. PPH are specific hospital admissions that potentially could have been prevented by timely and adequate health care in the community. This report highlights disparities in PPH rates between populations, particularly the very young and the elderly, those in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, remote areas, and Indigenous Australians, and illustrates some challenges and opportunities for PPH reporting.
More information is available in the companion PDF report Disparities in potentially preventable hospitalisations across Australia, 2012–13 to 2017–18.
- Cat. no: HPF 51
Findings from this report:
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Around 7% of all hospitalisations in 2017–18 were classified as potentially preventable
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Nearly 10% of all hospital bed days in 2017–18 were for potentially preventable hospitalisations
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There were nearly 748,000 potentially preventable hospitalisations in Australia in 2017–18
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The most common cause of PPH in males was COPD; in females it was urinary tract infections