National Hospital Cost Data Collection (NHCDC) Public Sector Report 2015–16
Date published: 7 March 2018
This National Hospital Cost Data Collection (NHCDC) Public Sector Report includes the results of participation across the various jurisdictions. The report investigates specific questions relating to hospital costs for admitted, non-admitted and emergency department services. The report includes jurisdiction level data and the national cost weight tables.
These documents account for the hospital costs submitted by jurisdictions for the following activity streams: admitted acute, non-admitted, emergency department, mental health, subacute and non-acute.
The NHCDC Data Request Specifications (DRS) list the data elements to be submitted to IHACPA and include the validation rules which will be applied to the data on submission.
The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of costs as reported in the NHCDC Public Sector 2015-16. This report contains detailed analysis of the NHCDC Public Sector 2015-16 including:
- summary tables at the national and jurisdiction level by admitted acute, subacute, non-admitted, emergency department and other products.
- cost weight tables for actual and estimated admitted acute separations.
The NHCDC Public Sector 2015-16 includes costs from 343 hospitals, 15 less than in 2014-15. The total expenditure submitted to the NHCDC Public Sector 2015-16 was $38.8 billion, a 9.3 per cent increase from 2014-15.
Participation
The NHCDC Report 2015-16 includes costs from 343 hospitals, 15 less than in 2014-15.
Total expenditure
In the NHCDC Report 2015-16, total expenditure submitted was $38.8 billion, a 9.3 per cent increase over NHCDC 2013-14 to 2015-16.
Expenditure is split between five streams:
- Admitted acute accounted for 73 per cent of total expenditure, reporting $28.3 billion from 334 hospitals. This represents a 7.5 per cent increase in expenditure from 2014-15, with 11 fewer hospitals reporting data.
- Emergency Department expenditure accounted for $4.7 billion from 215 hospitals. This represents a 13.4 per cent increase in expenditure from 2014-15, with 16 additional hospitals reporting data.
- Non-admitted expenditure accounted for $5.4 billion from 257 hospitals. This represents a 15.5 per cent increase in expenditure from 2014-15, with 11 fewer hospitals reporting data.
- Subacute and non-acute expenditure accounted for $2.4 billion from 314 hospitals. This represents a 6.1 per cent increase in expenditure from 2014-15, with 17 fewer hospitals reporting data.
- Other product expenditure accounted for $94.8 million from 165 hospitals. This represents a 83.9 per cent increase in expenditure over 2014-15, with 28 fewer hospitals reporting data
Average costs
For the NHCDC, costs are reported at the patient level. This allows for the calculation of average costs per episode by product stream:
- 5.5 million admitted acute separations were reported in 2015-16, an increase of 4.0 per cent over 2014-15. The average cost per admitted acute separation was $5,194, a 3.3 per cent increase on 2014-15;
- 7.2 million ED presentations were reported in 2015-16, an increase of 5.1 per cent over 2014-15. The average cost per presentation was $652, a 7.8 per cent increase on 2014-15;
- 17.8 million non-admitted service events were reported in 2015-16, an increase of 3.6 per cent over 2014-15. The average cost per non-admitted service event was $303, an 11.5 per cent increase on 2014-15;
- 173,396 subacute and non-acute separations were reported in 2015-16, an increase of 0.6 per cent over 2014-15. The average cost per separation was $13,911, a 5.4 per cent increase on 2014-15;
- 25,298 other product counts of activity were reported in 2015-16, remaining consistent with activity reported in 2014-15 despite the increase in total costs submitted.
Average cost per weighted separation
Figure 3 (below) identifies the average cost and average weighted cost by jurisdiction. Victoria, Queensland and Northern Territory all have average costs per separation below the national average cost. NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania have an average cost per weighted separation below the national average. The average cost per weighted separation considers the complexity of separations of each jurisdiction.
Readers of the report are reminded that the results published should not be compared to the NEP. The NEP includes a series of adjustments to the NHCDC results to account for variations in the cost of delivering services, based on factors such as location, indigenous status and paediatrics.
