National Hospital Cost Data Collection (NHCDC) Public Hospitals Report - Round 19 (financial year 2014–15)

NHCDC Data Request Specifications, Round 19 (Financial year 2014-15)

The National Hospital Cost Data Collection (NHCDC) Data Request Specifications (DRS) list the data elements to be submitted to IHPA and include the validation rules which will be applied to the data on submission.

NHCDC Public Hospitals Cost Report, Round 19 (Financial year 2014-15)

Participation

The Round 19 NHCDC, for financial year 2014-15, includes costs from 358 hospitals, 84 less than in Round 18.

Queensland was the primary contributor to this change with 92 fewer hospitals. These were primarily small rural hospitals and impacted the emergency department and non-admitted activity and expenditure. Victoria reported eight additional hospitals compared to Round 18. The increase in Victorian hospital participation led to an increase in the proportion of admitted acute activity for which costs were submitted by 1.3 per cent to 93.6 per cent.

Total Expenditure

In the Round 19 NHCDC, total expenditure submitted was $35.6 billion, a 5.0 per cent increase over Round 18.

Expenditure is split between five streams:

• Admitted acute accounted for 74 per cent of total expenditure, reporting $26.4 billion from 345 hospitals. This represents a 6.2 per cent increase in expenditure over Round 18, with seven fewer hospitals reporting data.
• ED expenditure accounted for $4.2 billion from 199 hospitals. This represents a 2.9 per cent increase in expenditure over Round 18, with 58 fewer hospitals reporting data.
• Non-admitted expenditure accounted for $4.7 billion from 268 hospitals. This represents a 3.4 per cent increase in expenditure over Round 18, with 81 fewer hospitals reporting data.
• Subacute and non-acute expenditure accounted for $2.3 billion from 331 hospitals. This represents a 3.0 per cent increase in expenditure over Round 18, with four fewer hospitals reporting data.
• Other product expenditure accounted for $51.6 million from 193 hospitals. This represents a 29.3 per cent decrease in expenditure over Round 18, with five 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:

• 5.2 million admitted acute separations were reported in Round 19, an increase of 5.0 per cent over Round 18. The average cost per admitted acute separation was $5,026, a 1.1 per cent increase on Round 18.
• 6.9 million ED presentations were reported in Round 19, a decrease of 0.5 per cent over Round 18. The average cost per presentations was $605, a 3.5 per cent increase on Round 18;
• 17.2 million non-admitted service events were reported in Round 19, an increase of 7.4 per cent over Round 18. The average cost per non-admitted service event was $272, a 3.7 per cent decrease on Round 18;
• 172,317 subacute and non-acute separations were reported in Round 19, an increase of 3.0 per cent over Round 18. The average cost per subacute separation did not change from Round 18 and was $13,193;
• 25,301 other product counts of activity were reported in Round 19, a decrease of 7.0 per cent over Round 18.

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.

NHCDC Independent Financial Review, Round 19 (Financial year 2014-15)

The National Hospital Cost Data Collection (NHCDC) is the primary data collection that IHPA relies on to calculate the National Efficient Price used for the funding of public hospital services. To ensure that the quality of NHCDC data is robust and fit-for-purpose, IHPA commissions an independent financial review to assess whether all participating hospitals have included appropriate costs and patient activity.