NOTES


ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION

This publication presents details from the 2006-07 national census of private hospitals. Three categories of hospitals are identified: Acute hospitals, Psychiatric hospitals and Free-standing day hospital facilities.

There are relatively few psychiatric hospitals and some of these are owned by the same parent company. To maintain the confidentiality of their data, psychiatric hospitals are combined with acute hospitals in most tables in this publication. Any differences between the data presented in this publication and the data shown in other reports on private hospital activity are due to differences in scope and coverage, relative completeness of the data sources and differing error resolution procedures.


FUTURE ISSUES

The Private Hospital Establishments collection will not be conducted for the 2007-08 reference period. It is anticipated that the next collection will be for the 2008-09 reference period, to be released in 2010. Further information will be available on the ABS website <www.abs.gov.au>.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


INTRODUCTION

This publication presents data for the private hospital sector in 2006-07. Comparable data for public hospitals are available in Australian Hospital Statistics 2005-06, produced by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).


HOSPITALS

There were 557 private hospitals operating in Australia in 2006-07 compared with 547 in 2005-06. This represents an overall increase of 1.8% in the total number of private hospitals, the net effect of a decrease of two Acute and psychiatric hospitals and an increase of 12 Free standing day hospitals.

The number of available beds and chairs increased 1.7% from 26,227 in 2005-06 to 26,678 in 2006-07. The number of beds and chairs in Acute and psychiatric hospitals increased 1.3% and those in Free-standing day hospitals increased 6.5%.

Total patient separations increased by 4.3% (2.9m in 2005-06 to 3.1m in 2006-07).

Private hospitals provided 7.7m days of hospitalisation to patients in 2006-07, up 2.6% on 2005-06.

Staff numbers decreased by 1.8% to 49,096 people (full-time equivalent).


PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS

Sex and Age

In 2006-07, the demographic profile of private hospital patients has changed very little from the previous year. Females accounted for 55% of all patient separations, and people aged 65 and over accounted for 35% of all patient separations. Based on the estimated resident population for 31 December, 2006, there were 152.1 patient separations per 1,000 population for females and 125.9 patient separations per 1,000 population for males.


Insurance

The proportion of patient separations reported as being covered by hospital insurance remained relatively stable for all private hospitals at 79%. Patient separations reported as being covered by hospital insurance in private Acute and psychiatric hospitals increased by 4.0 over the year, while for Free-standing day hospitals there was a slight decrease of 0.7%.

Procedures performed

The total number of procedures decreased by 3.0% from 6.5 million in 2005-06 to 6.3 million in 2006-07. Of these procedures, 5.0 million were performed in Acute and psychiatric hospitals and the remainder in free-standing day hospitals.

The greatest proportion of procedures were in the category Non-invasive, cognitive and other interventions nec (45%) followed by Procedures on the digestive system (11%). Examples of Non-invasive, cognitive and other interventions are services such as dietary education and exercise therapy (often used for development of treatment plans, programs, case reviews or follow up to previous procedures performed). For further details of the classification refer to Volume 3 International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision-Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM).

Similar patterns were reflected in both the Acute and psychiatric and Free-standing day hospitals. For Acute and psychiatric hospitals, Non-invasive, cognitive and other interventions nec accounted for 48% of all procedures performed in 2006-07, up from 47% in the previous year. The next most common procedures in Acute and psychiatric hospitals were on the Digestive system (9.8%), the Musculoskeletal system (6.0%) and Dental services (4.3%). For Free-standing day hospitals, Non-invasive, cognitive and other interventions nec accounted for the highest proportion of all procedures performed on patients in 2006-07 at 33%. This is followed by Procedures on the digestive system (18%), Dental services (8.3%) and Procedures on the eye and adnexa (7.6%). The most common principle diagnosis for patient separations from all private hospitals was Factors influencing health status and contact with health services (21%). This relates to occasions when circumstances other than a disease, injury or external cause are recorded as 'diagnoses' or 'problems' (see Glossary). The second most common principle diagnosis for all patient separations was Diseases of the digestive system (15%). Similarly in 2005-06, Factors influencing health status and contact with health services represented 21% of patient separations and Diseases of the digestive system represented 16% of all patient separations.


Mode of Patient Separation

The majority of all patients (92%) were discharged to their place of usual residence in 2006-07. Patient separations discharged to usual residence remained relatively stable for Private acute and psychiatric hospitals and decreased by 2.1% for Free-standing day hospitals since 2005-06.


INCOME & EXPENDITURE

Patient activity continued to grow, with income totalling $7,539.4m in 2006-07, up from $7,001.1m in 2005-06. Total income from private acute and psychiatric hospitals was $6,810.5m which accounted for 94% of all private hospital income.

Total recurrent expenditure for all private hospitals increased by 7.2% to $6,966.7m in 2006-07 from $6,497.9m in 2005-06. For private Acute and psychiatric hospitals, the proportion of wages and salaries attributed to recurrent expenses remained almost steady at 52% in 2006-07, and for Free-standing day hospitals was consistent with 2005-06 at 40%.

The private hospital sector invested $474.9m in building and other capital assets in 2006-07, with private Acute and psychiatric hospitals increasing investment from $370.1m in 2005-06 to $439.7m in 2006-07. Free-standing day hospitals doubled investment from $17.2m in 2005-06 to $35.2m in 2006-07.


NET OPERATING MARGIN

Net operating margin is derived by subtracting recurrent expenditure from income and expressing the result as a proportion of income. The net operating margin for Acute and psychiatric hospitals during 2006-07 was 7.1%, up from 6.5% in 2005-06. The net operating margin for Free-standing day hospital facilities was higher at 16%. This was lower than the previous year's percentage of 18%.

ACCREDITATION

Hospital accreditation has been identified as an indicator of capability within the National Health Performance Framework (for further information refer to Australian Hospital Statistics 2005-06, produced by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)). As at the 30 June 2006, the main organisations used by hospitals to obtain accreditation were Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) (used by 369 hospitals) and Benchmark Certification (used by 70 hospitals).