About the data source
Data for this report were drawn from the National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) 2017–18 to 2023–24.
The counting unit for this publication were episodes of care, measured by financial year of separation (completed episode of care for an admitted patient). This may be a complete hospital stay (to discharge, transfer, or death), or a part of the stay if there was a change of care type (for example from acute to rehabilitation).
As a record is included for each hospitalisation, not for each patient, patients hospitalised more than once or transferred between hospitals in the financial year will have more than one record.
Episodes for Newborn care (without qualified days), Hospital boarders and Posthumous organ procurement were excluded in this report.
The National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) is a compilation of episode-level records from admitted patient morbidity data collection systems in Australian hospitals. It has records for all separations of admitted patients from essentially all public and private hospitals in Australia.
The data supplied are based on the National minimum data set (NMDS) for Admitted Patient Care and include demographic, administrative and length of stay data, as well as data on the diagnoses of the patients, the procedures they underwent in hospital and external causes of injury and poisoning.
The purpose of the NMDS for Admitted Patient Care is to collect information about care provided to admitted patients in Australian hospitals. The scope of the NMDS is episodes of care for admitted patients in all public and private acute and psychiatric hospitals, free standing day hospital facilities, and alcohol and drug treatment centres in Australia. Hospitals operated by the Australian Defence Force, corrections authorities and in Australia’s offshore territories are not in scope but some are included.
The following data quality issues should be taken into consideration when interpreting these data:
- While there are national standards for data on hospital services, there is variation over time and across states and territories in the way hospital services are defined and counted. This may affect comparability of results across local areas.
- For the Australian Capital Territory, prior to 2019–20 data were not available for some private hospitals, in 2019–20 this data was provided for the first time.
- Results published here may vary slightly from those reported by states and territories due to minor variations in the scope (inclusions, exclusions) and the availability of more recent data.
- Data on hospital admissions may be resubmitted at any time by state/territory data custodians to the Admitted Patient Care database and could affect PPH counts over time. Counts are correct as at the time of analysis.
- The counts and rates included in this report are derived using correspondences based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3 (2021) and Primary Health Network (2023) boundaries. Counts and rates will vary from previous publications which used the ASGS Edition 2 (2016) and Primary Health Network (2017) boundaries. Additionally, this report uses the Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) of usual residence to apply correspondences. This will result in differences from reports using alternative levels of geography for applying correspondences.
Trends in PPH over time may be affected by changes to codes and coding standards defined in the International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems, 10th revision, Australian modification (ICD-10-AM) and the Australian classification of health interventions (ACHI).
The following editions of the ICD-10-AM (incorporating ACHI) were reported by states and territories to each period of the NHMD as follows:
- 2017–18 to 2019–20: ICD-10-AM 10th edition
- 2020–21 to 2021–22: ICD-10-AM 11th edition
- 2022–23 to 2023–24: ICD-10-AM 12th edition.
Detailed information about data quality issues and changes to coding over time are described in the Admitted patient care 2017–18: Australian hospital statistics (AIHW 2019) and Hospitals info & downloads – About the data for 2018–19 to 2023–24 (AIHW 2024).
In this data update, the PHN Program Performance and Quality Framework Indicator, Rate of potentially preventable hospitalisations, is referred to as potentially preventable hospitalisations. It is based on the NHA specifications, ‘PI 18–Selected potentially preventable hospitalisations, 2024’ and presented by RA, SEIFA IRSD, PHN area and SA3. It includes disaggregation by age and sex.
Data are presented for 22 condition groups (national and PHN only) and by 3 broad categories. Totals are also provided for a combined Acute and vaccine preventable PPH and all 22 condition groups combined (Total PPH).
- Acute PPH
- Cellulitis
- Convulsions and epilepsy
- Dental conditions
- Ear, nose and throat infections
- Eclampsia
- Gangrene
- Pelvic inflammatory disease
- Perforated/bleeding ulcer
- Pneumonia (not vaccine-preventable)
- Urinary tract infections, including pyelonephritis
- Vaccine preventable PPH
- Other vaccine-preventable conditions
- Pneumonia and influenza (vaccine-preventable)
- Chronic PPH
- Angina
- Asthma
- Bronchiectasis
- COPD
- Congestive cardiac failure
- Diabetes complications
- Hypertension
- Iron deficiency anaemia
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Rheumatic heart disease
Counts and rates are rounded to whole numbers. Counts and rates may not sum to the total, due to rounding and population estimates. Additionally, some hospitalisations may account for multiple PPH conditions. As a result, conditions may not sum to categories, and categories may not sum to total PPH.
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2019) Admitted patient care 2017–18: Australian hospital statistics, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 16 July 2025.
AIHW (2024) MyHospitals – Hospitals info & downloads, About the data, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 16 July 2025.