ANZSGM 2023 Annual Scientific Meeting – Abstract Submission
Research Abstract
Title: An update on trends in the use of hospital beds by older people in Australia: data from 1993 to 2020.
Aims: To examine trends in the use of Australian acute hospital inpatient services, from 1993-2020
Methods: Secondary analysis of hospital data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in the period 1993-94 to 2019-20, with population data for this period from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The primary variable of interest was population-based rates of hospital separations and bed utilisation.
Results: The Australian population increased by 44% overall, with the largest increase in older Australians aged ³75 years (+115%). Hospital use increased substantially over this period, driven by a four-fold increase in same day admissions. The most substantial changes in hospital use were observed in the population aged 75 years and older, with separation rates increasing by 94%, mostly offset by length of stay reducing by 44% and bed utilisation increasing by 3%. Rates of bed utilisation (in relation to population size) declined sharply among older groups (39% decline in per capita use in the population aged 65-74 years, and 37% decline in the population ³75 years). Overall, total bed utilisation was 16.8% lower than projected based on the 1993-94 rates.
Conclusions: Our data show that bed utilisation has slightly increased in the ³75 years group, with the rate of decline of hospital length of stay slowing. A major strategy to contain hospital costs has been to limit the availability of hospital beds and to seek to reduce length of stay, thus preserving access. This strategy may now be exhausted.